Editing Czesław Miłosz (section)

=== Asylum in France ===
Upon arriving in Paris, Miłosz went into hiding, aided by the staff of the Polish émigré magazine ''[[Kultura]].''<ref>{{Cite book|oclc=982122195|title=Milosz: A Biography|last=Franaszek, Andrzej|pages=284–285}}</ref> With his wife and son still in the United States, he applied to enter the U.S. and was denied. At the time, the U.S. was in the grip of [[McCarthyism]], and influential Polish émigrés had convinced American officials that Miłosz was a communist.<ref>{{Cite book|oclc=982122195|title=Milosz: A Biography|last=Franaszek, Andrzej|pages=301}}</ref> Unable to leave France, Miłosz was not present for the birth of his second son, John Peter, in Washington, D.C., in 1951.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Milosz: A Biography|last=Franaszek, Andrzej|pages=283}}</ref>

With the United States closed to him, Miłosz requested—and was granted—[[Right of asylum|political asylum]] in France. After three months in hiding, he announced his defection at a press conference and in a ''Kultura'' article, "No", that explained his refusal to live in Poland or continue working for the Polish regime. He was the first artist of note from a communist country to make public his reasons for breaking ties with his government.<ref>{{Cite book|oclc=982122195|title=Milosz: A Biography|last=Franaszek, Andrzej|pages=286}}</ref> His case attracted attention in Poland, where his work was banned and he was attacked in the press, and in the West, where prominent individuals voiced criticism and support. For example, the future Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda, then a supporter of the [[Soviet Union]], attacked him in a communist newspaper as "The Man Who Ran Away". On the other hand, [[Albert Camus]], another future Nobel laureate, visited Miłosz and offered his support.<ref name="Haven2006">{{cite book|author=Cynthia L. Haven|title=Czesław Miłosz: Conversations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r-fXgmb5EmEC&pg=PA206|year=2006|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi|isbn=978-1-57806-829-6|page=206}}</ref> Another supporter during this period was the Swiss philosopher [[Jeanne Hersch]], with whom Miłosz had a brief romantic affair.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Milosz: A Biography|last=Franaszek|first=Andrzej|pages=312–318}}</ref>

Miłosz was finally reunited with his family in 1953, when Janina and the children joined him in France.<ref name="Franaszek, Andrzej 324">{{Cite book|oclc=982122195|title=Milosz: A Biography|last=Franaszek, Andrzej|pages=324}}</ref> That same year saw the publication of ''The Captive Mind'', a nonfiction work that uses case studies to dissect the methods and consequences of Soviet communism, which at the time had prominent admirers in the West. The book brought Miłosz his first readership in the United States, where it was credited by some on the political left (such as [[Susan Sontag]]) with helping to change perceptions about communism.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://movies2.nytimes.com/books/00/03/12/specials/sontag-communism.html|title=Susan Sontag Provokes Debate on Communism|website=movies2.nytimes.com|access-date=2019-04-10}}</ref> The German philosopher [[Karl Jaspers]] described it as a "significant historical document".<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Endurance and Miracle: Review of The Captive Mind|last=Jaspers|first=Karl|date=6 June 1953|journal=The Saturday Review}}</ref> It became a staple of political science courses and is considered a classic work in the study of [[totalitarianism]].

Miłosz's years in France were productive. In addition to ''The Captive Mind'', he published two poetry collections (''[[Daylight (Miłosz)|Daylight]]'' (1954) and ''[[A Treatise on Poetry]]'' (1957)), two novels (''{{ill|The Seizure of Power|pl|Zdobycie władzy}}'' (1955) and ''The Issa Valley'' (1955)), and a memoir (''Native Realm'' (1959)). All were published in Polish by an émigré press in Paris.

Andrzej Franaszek has called ''A Treatise on Poetry'' Miłosz's magnum opus, while the scholar [[Helen Vendler]] compared it to ''[[The Waste Land]]'', a work "so powerful that it bursts the bounds in which it was written—the bounds of language, geography, epoch".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2001/05/31/a-lament-in-three-voices/|title=A Lament in Three Voices|last=Vendler|first=Helen|journal=New York Review of Books|date=2001-05-31|access-date=2019-04-10|language=en|issn=0028-7504}}</ref> A long poem divided into four sections, ''A Treatise on Poetry'' surveys Polish history, recounts Miłosz's experience of war, and explores the relationship between art and history.

In 1956, Miłosz and Janina were married.<ref name="Franaszek, Andrzej 324"/>{{Efn|There is evidence that Miłosz and Janina obtained a civil marriage certificate in Warsaw in 1944. World War II had separated Janina from her first husband, who was in London. This prevented them from obtaining a divorce, and they remained legally married. Miłosz and Janina had a church-sanctioned wedding in France in 1956 after her first husband died.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Milosz: A Biography|last=Franaszek, Andrzej|pages=323}}</ref>|name=marriage|group=lower-alpha}}