The subject of divided critical opinion because of the experimental nature of his writings and his use of radical subject matter, Jerzy Kosinski, author of such novels as The Painted Bird and Being There, nevertheless ranks among the most celebrated of contemporary American authors. By the time of his death in May 1991, 70 million copies of his novels were in circulation. He received various academic posts, awards, and fellowships during his lifetime--these and the immense popularity of his writings confirm Kosinski as a major figure in modern American literature.
The range of critical response is in evidence in this carefully annotated bibliography. It comprises listings of both primary and secondary sources on Kosinski through 1990. The primary sources provide editions of his novels, recordings, nonfiction books, miscellaneous writings, and interviews. Secondary sources include reference materials, books and monographs, biographical sources, dissertations, and criticism and reviews specific to particular works. Access is facilitated by author and subject indexes. The work will be of special value to those interested in Holocaust and expatriate fiction as well as to students of twentieth-century American and American-Jewish literature in general.