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Dorothy Adams
DOROTHY ADAMS (1901-1966) was an American author who married a Polish economist and diplomat, John Telesfor Kostanecki. She was born on January 23, 1901, the daughter of James Davis Adams and Mary ...view moreDOROTHY ADAMS (1901-1966) was an American author who married a Polish economist and diplomat, John Telesfor Kostanecki. She was born on January 23, 1901, the daughter of James Davis Adams and Mary Pickavant Cranford, and a distant relative of the second U.S. President, John Adams. Dorothy grew up in Boston, Massachusetts and graduated from Goucher College, near Baltimore, Maryland, in 1921. She then sailed to Europe and began working for the League of Nations in Geneva. In 1926, she graduated from the London School of Economics with a postgraduate degree in Statistics and International Law. She met Jan Kostanecki whilst on a business trip to Krakow, and again, by chance, on a trip to Kent. The couple married in 1927 and settled in Poland, and had a son, Andrzej. Dorothy immersed herself in the language, customs and history of her new home; she came to identify personally with the patriotism of her husband’s family and friends, and with their enthusiasm for the work of rebuilding their nation. She was also able to assist her husband in his international diplomatic missions for the Polish government. After Kostanecki’s tragic death in 1937 in an airplane accident, Dorothy remained in Poland until 1939, when her American relatives, fearing the approach of war in Poland, convinced her to return to the United States. She wrote a book, We Stood Alone, giving a detailed personal account of her time spent in Poland, the indifference of the West to German ambitions, the rise of Nazism, and the beginning of the outbreak of WWII. She passed away in New York in 1966.
IRENA LORENTOWICZ (1908-1985) was a Polish artist, writer, teacher and award-winning set-designer, and the daughter of literary and theatrical critic Jan Lorentowicz (1868-1940). A graduate of the Warsaw School of Fine Arts (1925-1931), she collaborated with Warsaw theaters from the 1930s. She was also active in France and America. Irena died in Warsaw in 1985, aged 76.view less