Jerzy Kosiński (; June 14, 1933 – May 3, 1991 ), born Józef Lewinkopf, was an award-winning Polish American novelist, and two-time President of the American Chapter of P. E. N.

Kosiński, who was Jewish, was born Józef Lewinkopf in Łódź, Poland.

After Weir died in 1968 from brain cancer, Kosiński was left nothing in her will.

Kosiński suffered from multiple illnesses at the end of his life, and was under attack from journalists who accused him of plagiarism.

Soon after the book was published in the US, Kosiński was accused by the then-Communist Polish government of being anti-Polish, especially following the regime's 1968 anti-Semitic campaign.

When it was finally printed, thousands of Poles in Warsaw lined up for as long as eight hours to purchase copies of the work autographed by Kosiński.

The screenplay was co-authored by award-winning screenwriter Robert C. Jones with Kosiński.

According to Eliot Weinberger, an American writer, essayist, editor and translator, Kosiński was not the author of The Painted Bird.

Weinberger alleged in his 2000 book Karmic Traces that Kosiński was not fluent in English at the time of its writing.

Kosiński himself addressed these claims in the introduction to the 1976 reissue of The Painted Bird, saying that " Well-intentioned writers critics, and readers sought facts to back up their claims that the novel was autobiographical.

In June 1982, a Village Voice report by Geoffrey Stokes and Eliot Fremont-Smith accused Kosiński of plagiarism, claiming that much of his work was derivative of prewar books unfamiliar to English readers, and that Being There was a plagiarism of Kariera Nikodema Dyzmy — The Career of Nicodemus Dyzma — a 1932 Polish bestseller by Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz.

Terence Blacker, a profitable English publisher ( who helped publish Kosiński's books ) and author of children's books and mysteries for adults, wrote in his article published in The Independent in 2002: " The significant point about Jerzy Kosiński was that ... his books ... had a vision and a voice consistent with one another and with the man himself.

Kosiński himself responded that he had never maintained that the book was autobiographical, even though years earlier he confided to Houghton Mifflin editor Santillana that his manuscript " draws upon a childhood spent, by the casual chances of war, in the remotest villages of Eastern Europe.

Kosiński appeared 12 times on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson during 1971 – 73, and The Dick Cavett Show in 1974, was a guest on the talk radio show of Long John Nebel, posed half-naked for a cover photograph by Annie Leibovitz for The New York Times Magazine in 1982, and presented the Oscar for screenwriting in 1982.

Kosiński was also friends with Wojciech Frykowski and Abigail Folger.

Kosiński was also very interested in polo, and compared himself to a character from his novel Passion Play: " The character, Fabian, is at the mercy of his aging and his sexual obsession.

Norman Finkelstein, former professor of political science at DePaul University, wrote in The Holocaust Industry: " Long after Kosiński was exposed as a consummate literary hoaxer, Wiesel continued to heap encomiums on his " remarkable body of work.

According to Eliot Weinberger, contemporary American writer, essayist, editor, and translator, Kosiński was not the author of the book.

' There was a hollow space at the center of Kosiński that had resulted from denying his past ,' Sloan writes, ' and his whole life had become a race to fill in that hollow space before it caused him to implode, collapsing inward upon himself like a burnt-out star.

Among other things, Corry alleged that reports claiming that " Kosiński was a plagiarist in the pay of the C. I. A.

D. G. Myers, Associate Professor of English at Texas A & M University, reviewing a biography of Kosiński noted that initially the author had passed off The Painted Bird as the true story of his own life during the Holocaust: " Long before writing it he regaled friends and dinner parties with macabre tales of a childhood spent in hiding among the Polish peasantry.

After World War II, Kosiński remained with his parents in Poland, moved to Jelenia Góra, and by the age of 22 had earned two graduate degrees in history and sociology at the University of Łódź.

The information showed that rather than wandering the Polish countryside, as his fictional character did, Kosiński spent the war years in hiding with a Polish Catholic family.

As Commander of the newly created Polish units in this region, General Amilkar Kosiński had to fight against the largest Prussian troops in Greater Poland on one side and with an uncooperative French intendent on the other one, using troops with very little training or experience.

February 1807, Garczyński's group was subordinated to Gen. Kosiński and later, with some troops of pospolite ruszenie, was sent to fight near Neustettin.

Peasants and craftsmen responded to the feudal oppression with the revolt in 1591-1593, led by Krzysztof Kosiński, and the revolt in 1594-1596, led by Severyn Nalyvaiko.

Among those who were fascinated was Dorothy de Santillana, a senior editor at Houghton Mifflin, to whom Kosiński confided that he had a manuscript based on his experiences.

The Kosiński family survived the Holocaust thanks to local villagers who offered assistance to Jewish Poles, often at great personal risk ( the penalty in Nazi-occupied Poland being death ).

The journalist John Corry, being himself a controversial author, wrote a 6, 000-word feature article in the New York Times in November 1982, defending Kosiński, which appeared on the front page of the " Arts and Leisure " section.

" According to James Park Sloan, by the time the book was going into publication, Kosiński refrained from making further claims of the book being autobiographical – in a letter to de Santillana and in a subsequent author's note to the book itself.

In a review of Jerzy Kosiński: A Biography by James Park Sloan, D. G. Myers, Associate Professor of English at Texas A & M University wrote " For years Kosinski passed off The Painted Bird as the true story of his own experience during the Holocaust.

Kosiński wrote his novel Pin Ball ( 1982 ) for his friend George Harrison, having conceived of the idea for the book at least ten years before writing it.

Weinberger alleged in his collection Karmic Traces that Kosiński had very little fluent knowledge of English at the time of its writing.

In 1591 Kosiński, who was at that time one of the colonels of the Registered Cossacks in Kiev Voivodship, was deprived of his estate in the villages of Rokitno and Olszanice by the Ostrogski family.

According to Aleksander Wiśniowiecki, Kosiński was killed in a battle against his forces, while the chronicle of Marcin Bielski mentions that Kosiński was found drunk in a guest house and killed in a duel.

Kosiński went on to marry Katherina " Kiki " von Fraunhofer, a marketing consultant and descendant of Bavarian aristocracy.

Kosiński committed suicide on May 3, 1991, by wrapping a plastic bag around his head and suffocating to death.

Journalist John Corry, wrote a 6, 000-word feature article in The New York Times in November 1982, responding and defending Kosiński, which appeared on the front page of the Arts and Leisure section.

After taking odd jobs to get by, such as driving a truck, Kosiński graduated from Columbia University.

The Painted Bird ( Der Gemalte Vogel ) is a controversial 1965 novel by Jerzy Kosiński which describes the world as seen by a young boy, " considered a Gypsy or Jewish stray ," who wanders about small towns scattered around Eastern Europe during World War II.

D. G. Myers responded to Blacker's assertions in his review of Jerzy Kosiński: A Biography by James Park Sloan:

The couple met in New York City in December 1967, when Folger was introduced to him by his old friend, author Jerzy Kosiński.

Kosiński Uprising ( 1591 – 1593 ) is a name applied to two rebellions in Ukraine organised by Krzysztof Kosiński against the local Ruthenian nobility and magnates.

Meanwhile, the units commanded by Amilkar Kosiński, which had been fighting against regular Prussian troops since December, won the battle of Koronowo and marched to Świecie, forcing the enemy to leave the town and securing this place of concentration for the newly created division.

It is claimed by some that the book subsequently inspired the 1971 novel Being There by Jerzy Kosiński.