“Ja już podarłem kilka swoich sztuk…”. From the personal archive of Adam Tarn

The personal archive of Adam Tarn (1902–1975), the first editor-in-chief Dialog monthly and a translator, critic, novelist, playwright, includes notes with loose ideas for plays, to his unfinished book on Chekhov, minor literary attempts, which he corrected, set aside later expanded. This material, Tarn’s heirs kindly offered me study, constitutes valuable proof creative process evolution writing Dialog’s editor-in-chief. In context Obraz ojca w czterech ramach [Father’s Image in Four Frames] (1934), début novel only one completed, Kameleon [Chameleon] is an intriguing item author’s collection works. this article I shall discuss material contained archive. study offers insight into “internal laboratory” enables read it from, e.g., biographical perspective. dating collected can be approximated. earliest surviving prose attempt written French probably came from interwar period, while final were composed during émigré period after 1968, when was working Chekhov.