Golf is a sport that gained a firm footing in Poland only after 1989 but first golf courses in the present Polish territories appeared probably already at the beginning of the 20th c. The first golf club in Warsaw was founded in the inter-war period. It was also at that time that the press started to publish articles on the discipline and on the way of dressing that became its fans. Polish newspapers often showed photos of the Prince of Wales, the future King of England Edward VIII, who was the icon of golf fashion in that epoch. The first Polish publication on the rules of the game was also issued at that time.
The year 2012 was the centenary of the birth of Bolesław Prus, author of Lalka (The Doll), Emancypantki (The New Woman) and Faraon (Pharaoh). Many readers associate this writer mostly with his novels but his literary output also includes the so-called “Kroniki Tygodniowe” (Weekly Chonicles), which in fact were the beginning of his literary career and fame. Prus wrote his extremely popular “Chronicles” - from which many Varsovians started to read their daily newspaper – between 1875 and 1910, publishing them in Kurier Warszawski and later in Kurier Codzienny. He knew the issues he wrote about from personal experience, he was very careful in verifying facts and news, and he often compared situations that he noticed with parallel situations abroad. He described all the good and bad sides of Warsaw. His work can be compared with the famous vedutas by Bernardo Canaletto, who showed all the realities of Warsaw a century before Prus. After reading many volumes of the Chronicles it would be easier to list the topics that Prus was not interested in than those that attracted his attention and inspired him to write. The Chronicles explore themes and motifs that recurred in all his journalistic writings. One of them was sport. Prus was an ardent sport fan and he went in for sports himself, therefore he often wrote about both sport and his compatriots’ fitness. He described the bad physical condition of Poles, being especially concerned about children and young people. He saw sport as the only chance to improve the situation. In the early Chronicles he wrote a lot about gymnastics and its almost “magic” effects, advocating it most ardently. He propagated the Warsaw Rowing Association and the Warsaw Cycling Association; he was himself a member of both associations, although of the two sports he was more keen on cycling, which he learnt being already an elderly man. In one of the Chronicles, he overtly encouraged the readers to buy bicycles. In addition to gymnastics, rowing and cycling, he also described the delights of skating and swimming. Sport topics were so important in the Chronicles as the author believed that sport facilitated the emancipation and self-improvement of society and that on the playing ground people acquired the principles of fair play, which could then be applied elsewhere.
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