Czeslaw Milosz belongs to the group of classics of Polish literature, and at the same time to those writers for whom the Polish culture of the second half of the twentieth century. thanks to his modern face. The essays of the Nobel Laureate collected in the book present to the Ukrainian reader a brilliant intellectual, his spiritual biography superimposed on the grid of geographical coordinates Free - Warsaw - Paris - Berkeley - Krakow and in tune with the most important events of the twentieth century. The reader will also find in the book expressive portraits of the poet's friends and brothers Jerzy Giedroyc, Stanislav Vincenz, Witold Gombrowicz, Thomas Wenzlow, and Joseph Brodsky.