Ryszard Kapuscinski: Ryszard Kapuscinski, Poland's most celebrated journalist and author, was born in 1932. His first book, Busz po polsku [Bush in Polish] appeared in 1962 and was an immediate bestseller. Many of his later works, which include The Emperor, Another Day of Life, The Soccer War, Shah of Shahs, Imperium, The Shadow of the Sun and Travels with Herodotus, have been translated into 31 languages and become part of the modern canon. He was, moreover, a poet, and published his poetry throughout his fifty-year writing career. One of the most acclaimed writers of our time, Kapuscinski died in Warsaw in January 2007.
One Kapusinski is worth more than a thousand whimpering and fantasizing scribblers. --Salman Rushdie