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"The Miller's Tale"
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Jerzy Kosinski
(1933 - 1991)
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Jerzy Kosinski (1933–1991) was born in Lodz, Poland. When the Nazis occupied Poland in 1939, he was sent by his parents to live in the countryside, where his nightmarish experiences later formed the basis for his classic of Holocaust fiction, The Painted Bird (1965). After receiving degrees in sociology and history, he emigrated to the United States and published two nonfiction books—The Future Is Ours, Comrade (1960) and No Third Path (1962)—under the pseudonym Joseph Novak. In 1973, he was elected president of the American Center of PEN, an international writer’s association. A prolific writer, Kosinski’s second novel, Steps (1968), received the National Book Award. In 1970, he received the American Academy of Arts and Letters for Literature. Other novels include The Devil Tree (1973), Cockpit (1975), Pinball (1982), and The Hermit of 69th Street (1988). His 1971 novel, Being There, was made into the Academy Award–winning 1979 film. Burdened by an increasingly serious heart condition, Kosinski committed suicide in 1991. Chapter 4 of The Painted Bird, "The Miller’s Tale," depicts how a boy known only as "the gypsy" reacts to his first experience of seeing the effects of jealousy and revenge in the lives of the East European peasants with whom he has found temporary shelter.
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