"The intimate memoir of a Polish girl in the UK, full of reflections on life, career, love and relationships"--Back cover.

They came to fight for freedom and their country, they came to fight Germans. Men of the Polish Air Force, who had escaped first to France and then to Britain, to fly alongside the Royal Air Force just as Fighter Command faced its greatest challenge the Battle of Britain.Many of the Polish airmen joined existing RAF squadrons. The Poles also formed their own squadrons, but only four became operational during the Battle of Britain: Nos. 300 and 301, were bomber squadrons, with another two, Nos. 302 and 303, being fighter squadrons. Flying Hawker Hurricanes, both 302 and 303 squadrons were active by the middle of August 1940, just when they were most needed, at the height of the Battle of Britain, with Fighter Command stretched to its limit.The Polish squadrons, battle-hardened from their encounters with the Luftwaffe during the invasion of Poland and Battle of France, soon made their mark. In particular, 303 Squadron become the highest-scoring unit of Fighter Command.In total, 145 Polish pilots, the largest non-British contingent in Fighter Command at the time, fought in the Battle of Britain. While Winston Churchill praised the contribution of the Few, the pilots of many nationalities who had defended Britain, Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding was more specific: Had it not been for the magnificent material contributed by the Polish squadrons and their unsurpassed gallantry, I hesitate to say that the outcome of the Battle would have been the same.

The translation of Felicja Kruszewska's A Dream introduces a major play by a twentieth-century female playwright to the English-speaking world. On March 7, 1927 A Dream - a large-scale expressionistic drama by an unknown poet - burst on the Polish theatrical scene in a dazzling debut production by the young actor Edmund Wiercinski, who would become one of the outstanding directors of his time. The play's hallucinatory visions of the rise of fascism and the heroine's longing for a providential savior on a white horse spoke directly to Polish audiences about their deepest anxieties. During the next two years A Dream received three additional stagings and became the subject of lively debate and controversy. The play, which has been successfully revived in 1974, is an outstanding example of European expressionism. The volume also contains An Excursion to the Museum, by the contemporary Polish poet, playwright, and short-story writer Tadeusz Rozewicz. A disturbing account of an utterly mundane visit to Auschwitz, the tale is a brilliant example of the playwright's technique of poetic collage.

Some of the greatest figures in American sports were Polish Americans, including Stan Ketchel, two-time middleweight boxing champion; Stella Walsh, a Polish-born Olympic sprinter; and Stan 'The Man' Musial, one of baseballs all-time greats who played in 24 All-Star games and set numerous major league records. Chasing the American Dream examines the impact of sports upon the lives of Polish-Americans, the unprecedented economic and social opportunities it created, and the enormous changes it brought about to Polonia.