BOOK NOTES

Profiles of notable personages by former broadcast journalist

"Na Neokrayanim Kryli" (On Unclipped Wing) by Wolodymyr Bilajiw. Donetsk: Eastern Publishing House, 2003, published by the Ukrainian Center for Cultural Studies, Donetsk Branch of the Shevchenko Scientific Society. 347 pp.

Wolodymyr Bilajiw's latest book offers a selection of 14 essays on contemporary Ukrainian poets, writers and literary scholars (of several generations) living in the West whom the author, a journalist and poet in his own right, came to know personally during various stages of his life in West Germany, Australia and the United States.

Featured in the accounts are the following prominent figures who, having fled their homeland as post-war refugees, played an important role in the cultural life of Ukraine in the 1940s-1990s and whose works, previously proscribed under Soviet rule, are now being published in Ukraine:

• the writer and political leader Ivan Bahrianyn (born in 1907 in Kyiv; died in 1963 in St. Blasien, Germany), in an essay titled "Respubliky Trybun" (The Tribune of the Republic);
  
  
• broadcast journalist Mykola Francuzenko, former head of the Ukrainian section of Voice of America in Washington (1988-1990), in an essay titled "Virnyi Poklykanniu" (True to His Calling);
  
  
• the writer Vasyl Haidarivsky (pen name of V. Haivoronsky), member of the literary group Zaboi and the All-Ukrainian Association of Proletarian Writers (born in 1908, in Kostiantynivka, in the Donbas region; died in 1972, in Philadelphia), in the essay "Shukach Harnoho Svitu" (In Search of a Beautiful World);
  
  
• writer and editor Halyna Zhurba (pseudonym of Halina Dombrowska) (born in 1888 in Teplyk, Podilia gubernia; died in 1979 in Philadelphia), in an essay titled "Tvorchist u Pokhodi Zhyttia" (Creativity in the Course of Life);
  
  
• poet, translator and former Soviet dissident Sviatoslav Karavansky (born in 1920, in Odesa), in the essay "Palka I Pravdyva Mova" (A Passionate and True Language);
  
  
• poet and literary critic Abram Katsnelson (born in 1914 in Horodnia, Chernihiv gubernia; died in 2003 in Los Angeles) in the essay "I Tut v Amerytsi Zhyvu Ya Ukrainoyu" (And Here in America, Ukraine is My True Source of Inspiration);
  
  
• prominent literary scholar and publicist Hryhoriy Kostiuk (born in 1902 Boryshkivtsi, Podilia gubernia; died in 2002 in Silver Spring, Md.), in the essay "Na Storozhi Slova" (The Guardian of the Word);
  
  
• the poet Andriy Lehit (pen name of Andriy Vorushylo) (born in 1916 in Kyiv region - present-day Cherkasy oblast), in the essay "Yak Tykhyi Lehit Nam Daruye Virshi..." (How the Quiet Lehit Makes Us a Gift of His Verse);
  
  
• poet and political activist Yevhen Malaniuk (born in 1897 in the Kherson region: died in 1968 in New York), in the essay "Poet Burkhlyvoyi Doby" (A Poet of a Turbulent Epoch);
  
  
• literary scholar, folklorist and VOA editor Petro Odarchenko (born in 1903, Rymarivka, Poltava gubernia), in the essay "Patriarkh Literaturoznavstva" (The Patriarch of Literary Scholarship);
  
  
• poet, translator and editor Vasyl Onufrienko (born in 1920 in the Poltava region died in 1992 in Australia), in the essay "Spivets Zemli Nezabutnoyi" (Singer of Praises of An Unforgettable Land);
  
  
• poet, novelist and translator Teodosii Osmachka, member of the Aspys and Lanka literary organizations (born in 1895 in Kutsivka, Kyiv gubernia; died in 1962 on Long Island, New York), in the essay "Khay Sobi Vin Bude Henii" (Let Him Be A Genius);
  
  
• poet and literary scholar, and president of the Shevchenko Scientific Society in western Canada since 1976, Yar Slavutych (né Hryhorii Zhuchenko) (born in 1918 in Blahodatne, Kherson gubernia), in the essay "Poet Syly" (A Poet of Strength); and
  
  
• the Rev. Mykola Stepanenko, educator, literary scholar and political activist (born in 1918 in Poltava: died in 1993 in San Jose, Calif.), "Polityk, Uchenyi, Sviashchenyk" (Politician, Scholar, Priest).

"Na Neokrayanim Kryli" contains entries by and about the author; a foreword by Vadym Olifirenko titled "U Poshukakh Vtrachenoyi Vitchyzny" (In Search of a Lost Homeland); a note from the publisher by V.S. Biletsky; as well as an annotated bibliography, footnotes, and a by-name index.

A broadcast journalist and editor, Mr. Bilajiw was affiliated with Voice of America (VOA) in Washington for 15 years until his retirement in 1999 and served as chief of the Ukrainian branch of VOA from 1992 to 1998.

He was born in 1925 in Mospyne, Donetsk region. In his youth, with the outbreak of war, he was taken as a forced laborer to Germany. As a post-war refugee, he was in a West German displaced persons camp and subsequently immigrated with his family initially to Australia and subsequently to the United States. Presently, he and his wife of 34 years, Dorothy M. Strom, live in North Palm Beach, Fla.

Mr. Bilajiw's poetry was first published in 1948 in the Literaturno Naukovyi Visnyk (The Literary-Scientific Herald), which came out in Munich, and his work as a journalist appeared in Ukrainski Visti (Ukrainian News), which was published in Neu Ulm, Germany.

His poems, essays and articles have appeared in Ukrainian émigré periodicals in such journals as Suchasnist, Novi Dni, Moloda Ukraina, Avanhard, Kyiv, and the literary almanac Slovo.

With Ukraine's independence in 1991, his work was published in periodicals in Ukraine as well, among them Literaturna Ukraina, Berezil, Dzvin, Dyvoslovo, Donbas, Kurier Kryvbasa, Dnipro, and Slovyanske Viche.

To date, Mr. Bilajiw's collected works have been published in three volumes: "Harvest" (1970) and "Beyond Happiness" (1979), which came out in the United States, and "Autumnal Renewal," which came out in his native Donetsk in 2001.

In 1980 Mr. Bilajiw was accorded the title of poet laureate of the Mohyla-Mazepa Academy of Sciences in Ukraine.

Mr. Bilajiw is a corresponding member of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts Sciences in New York and of the Writers' Union in Ukraine.

He has been active in Ukrainian émigré politics as chairman of the National Council of the State Center of the Ukrainian National Republic government-in-exile (1980-1984), among other positions.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, March 7, 2004, No. 10, Vol. LXXII

| Home Page |