TY - JOUR N2 - This article was prompted by a joint declaration made on 28 September 2015 by the Archbishops of Cracow and Warsaw and the state authorities of the two cities that they would provide means for publishing project ‘A Critical Edition of the Literary Works of Karol Wojtyła – John Paul II’. This decision, marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Karol Wojtyła in May 2020, signalizes the importance of the project which goes beyond a standard publication of an author’s complete works. The series was inaugurated by the publication in 2018 of Volume One (Juvenilia, 1938–1946), whose editors are expected to continue working on the following volumes. The author of this article takes a look at the first collected works edition of The Poetry and Dramas of Karol Wojtyła – John Paul II, published in 1979 (it actually went to press in 1980) under the directorship of Jacek Woźniakowski and authorized by John Paul II himself. It was in fact a complete edition as its editors succeeded in collecting all of Karol Wojtyła literary works from the moment he enrolled at the Seminary until his election as Pope in 1978. All the texts used for that edition were collected at source and in that respect can hardly be surpassed. For over forty years it offered a reliable store of Karol Wojtyła’s poems and plays to ordinary readers, translators, producers of plays and public ceremonies. In this article we can find a first-hand account of the story of that first edition from its inception, the role of the editors of the weekly Tygodnik Powszechny, the decisions taken at the Znak head office and the author’s own contribution as editor. It is at this point that he explains the decision to exclude from their edition Karol Wojtyła’s juvenila from his student years. L1 - http://journals.pan.pl/Content/116950/PDF/2020-01-LITR-05-Oko%C5%84.pdf L2 - http://journals.pan.pl/Content/116950 PY - 2020 IS - No 1 (358) EP - 90 DO - 10.24425/rl.2020.133840 KW - Pope John Paul II KW - Karol Wojtyła’s literary work KW - publication history KW - juvenilia KW - Znak Publishing House A1 - Okoń, Jan PB - Polska Akademia Nauk Oddział w Krakowie Komisja Historycznoliteracka PB - Uniwersytet Jagielloński Wydział Polonistyki DA - 2020.10.05 T1 - Karol Wojtyła’s "Poetry And Dramas" on the 40 th anniversary of his election as Pope John Paul II SP - 69 UR - http://journals.pan.pl/dlibra/publication/edition/116950 T2 - Ruch Literacki ER -