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Jan Kott

Jan Kott was a theater critic, scholar, and dramaturge. The author of Shakespeare, Our Contemporary, he was heavily influenced by Greek tragedy, the plays of modernists SI Witkiewicz and Slawomir Mrożek, as well as the theater of Tadeusz Kantor and Jerzy Grotwoski. Born in Warsaw in 1914, Kott was drafted in 1939 to serve in the Polish army in World War II. After teaching for some years at the University of Wroclaw and the University of Warsaw, he traveled to the United States on a Ford Foundation Scholarship in 1965. There he held visiting professorships at Yale, UC Berkeley, and Louvain. Rather than return to the political turmoil of Poland, he was granted asylum in the US, became a full-time professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and became an American citizen a decade later. He died in 2001.
Shakespeare, Our Contemporary

Books

Shakespeare, Our Contemporary

Three Penguin Random House Authors Win Pulitzer Prizes

On Monday, May 5, three Penguin Random House authors were honored with a Pulitzer Prize. Established in 1917, the Pulitzer Prizes are the most prestigious awards in American letters. To date, PRH has 143 Pulitzer Prize winners, including William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Josh Steinbeck, Ron Chernow, Anne Applebaum, Colson Whitehead, and many more. Take a look at our 2025 Pulitzer Prize

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Books for LGBTQIA+ Pride Month

In June we celebrate Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual + (LGBTQIA+) Pride Month, which honors the 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan. Pride Month is a time to both celebrate the accomplishments of those in the LGBTQ+ community and recognize the ongoing struggles faced by many across the world who wish to live

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