Welcome to CR’s Fall 2013 Issue!

The sun never sets on the Polish diaspora.

They are everywhere, in their infinite variety, and what luck we have to stay in touch, even if only virtually.

How I Got Here: A Boy’s Journey from Poland to the Land of the Rockies, the Mounties, Nelson Eddy and Jeannette MacDonald*

When Andrzej Derkowski arrived in Halifax in 1949 he had hoped to exchange his pith helmet for a cowboy hat. Canada had other plans for him. A marvelous tale, well told.

The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of One of Britain’s Bravest Heroines

Britain’s most spectacular secret agent was brave, loyal, irresistibly beautiful, and “a law unto herself.” Author Clare Mulley pens an excellent study of the fascinating Krystyna Skarbek/Christine Granville.

Polish California: From Pioneers to Silicon Valley

Meet the “Polanders” of California who celebrated their 150th anniversary.

Salvaged Ruins, History, and Monika Zofia Pauli’s Environmentally Conscious Architecture

Not only wars, argues Monika Zofia Pauli, but reckless human actions can destroy our historical environment.

She favors preservation rather than demolition: “…because the greenest building is one that is already built.”

Chopin and Joplin: Kindred Spirits

Roy Eaton is a man of many talents, much charm, a lot of courage, and irrepressible spirit who long ago decided to treat adversity as a gift.

Winner of the first Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin competition, his recordings include “The Meditative Chopin” and “The Joyful Joplin;” Roy Eaton is both.

Catching Up with Katy Carr

She is neither Polish nor British. She is a 21st century hybrid. And when she sings about Poland, she is an author of renaissance, not an author of requiem.

Blending In, Tasting Harmony: A Journey into Paul Kunigis’s Kitchen and Soul

Musician, poet, writer and chef, all of it in Polish, Hebrew, Arabic, German, French and English.

The Story of Two Photographs

Stoicism, determination, and a sense of humour: that’s all a young immigrant needs.

The Tosspot and the Diva

Henryk Sienkiewicz gave us Zagłoba, the hard drinking patriot noted for his girth – and mirth, but who knew that Sienkiewicz had found him in America?

Melchior Wańkowicz – Poland’s Master of the Written Word

The trial of Melchior Wańkowicz in 1960s communist Poland was a cause célèbre. Today, a new biography brings a captivating portrait of a “great humanist with a pragmatic approach to life, a prolific hard working writer, bon vivant, thinker, husband, father and most of all a fabulous reporter and storyteller.”

As I Recall: Fireflies in the Night

Mark and Sharon Duffield remember the fireflies that illuminated their childhood; Monika Zofia Pauli’s illustrations illuminate their book.

Good Blood, Bad Blood

Eugenics: misguided or malevolent? Vince Chesney reviews a book about a period in American history when human engineering was a seductive pseudoscience.