Sad to hear that veteran Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski died last week. I first came across him when I started reading Granta many years ago. To be honest I was intrigued by a magazine that came in a paperback book format. But two writers from those early editions really stood out for me: James Fenton’s reportage from his times in Vietnam amongst other places, collected in the book All The Wrong Places; and Kapucinski who’s reporting came from absolutely all over the world.
There are loads of books by him, but maybe ones to start with include The Soccer War (only one part of the book), and his more recently published The Shadow and the Sun detailing his time in Africa.
The remarkable thing about Kapuscinski is what he was able to do at a time when Poland was behind the Iron Curtain, and freedom of travel was not something bestowed lightly by the State.
As befits the man, there are obituaries all over the place. But here are ones from The New York Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The Times.
Granta’s put an interview conducted with Kapuscinski on its website along with a piece from 2004 (also reproduced in a shortened version in this weekend’s Guardian Review).
Finally, worth noting is a curious piece in Slate. We know that American journalism is holier than thou, which in many respects is why much of it’s so dull. But Jack Shafer does argue convincingly about the less glorious side of Kapuscinski’s writing. Still Shafer does say that fats are “invited to pour benzene over my naked body and set it afire with e-mail.”