Franciszek Ksawery Pruszyński (December 4, 1907 - June 13, 1950) was a Polish journalist, publicist, writer and diplomat. He was one of the most active and operative of Polish newspaper reporters and often had radical views.

A graduate of the Zakład Naukowo-Wychowawczy Ojców Jezuitów w Chyrowie

Zakład Naukowo-Wychowawczy Ojców Jezuitów w Chyrowie

Zakład Naukowo-Wychowawczy Ojców Jezuitów w Chyrowie was a Jesuit academic institution, with the status of high school, founded and run by the Jesuits in Khyriv, near Przemyśl, southeast Poland between 1883 - 1939...

 in 1927, he studied law at Jagiellonian University

Jagiellonian University

The Jagiellonian University was established in 1364 by Casimir III the Great in Kazimierz . It is the oldest university in Poland, the second oldest university in Central Europe and one of the oldest universities in the world....

. He joined the organization Myśl Mocarstwowa (Imperial Thought). His works first appeared in Dzień Akademicki and Civitas Academica. He specialized in medieval German law, taught by professor Stanisław Estreicher. In 1929 he was deputy assistant to Estreicher. He joined the editorial board of Kraków, Czas first as a proofreader, then surveying the foreign press, and from 1930, author of a series of reports from Hungary. In 1932 he published his debut book, Sarajewo 1914. In the 1930s he published in the magazine Bunt Młodych (Youth Revolt) and was a member of the young conservatives.

During the Spanish Civil War

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

 in 1936 he was a correspondent in Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

 and supported the Spanish Republican Army

Second Spanish Republic

The Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....

, staying at the famous Hotel Florida (Madrid)

Hotel Florida (Madrid)

The Hotel Florida in central Madrid, Spain, was built in 1924 and was used as a base by many of the foreign correspondents stationed in Madrid during the Spanish Civil War. While based in Spain as a correspondent for the North American News Association , Ernest Hemingway stayed at the hotel, where...

, then also inhabited by the likes of Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...

. After September 1939 he fought in the Polish Army, and served in the Battle of Narvik (Norway 1940), and Battle of Falaise (France 1944). After the war, between 1945-1950 he was a member of PRL in the Netherlands. At that time, he was associated with a Polish poet Julią Hartwig. He died in unexplained circumstances on June 13, 1950 in a car accident in Rhynern

Rhynern

Rhynern, also Hamm-Rhynern, is the largest town by area and former municipality, in the district of the city of Hamm, Westphalia, Germany. It has 18,578 inhabitants. The town is predominantly rural-agrarian and lies off the Bundesautobahn 2 on European route E34, south of the town of Westtünnen...

, south of Hamm

Hamm

Hamm is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia , Germany. It is located in the northeastern part of the Ruhr area. As of December 2003 its population was 180,849. The city is situated between the A1 motorway and A2 motorway...

, about 50 miles northeast of Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...

. He was buried at Rakowicki Cemetery

Rakowicki Cemetery

Rakowicki Cemetery is one of the best known cemeteries of Poland, located in the centre of Kraków. It lies within the Administrative District No. 1 Stare Miasto meaning "Old Town" – not to be confused with the historic Kraków Old Town further west...

 in Krakow

Kraków

Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

.

Married to Maria Meysztowicz, he had three children Aleksandra, Maria i Stanisława (Stasia) (born 1935) and Aleksander Pruszyński (born 1934).

Works

• Sarajewo 1914, (1932)
• Palestyna po raz trzeci (1933)
• Podróż po Polsce (1937)
• W czerwonej Hiszpanii (1939)
• Droga wiodła przez Narvik (1941)
• Księga ponurych niedopowiedzeń (1941)
• 1000 mil od prawdy (1941)
• Margrabia Wielopolski (1944)
• Russian Year (1944)
• Trzynaście opowieści (1946)
• Karabela z Meschedu (1948)
• Opowieść o Mickiewiczu (1956)