What’s more unlikely than a Mississippi city being named after a military hero from Poland?
How about an author from Australia writing a book about Thaddeus Kosciuszko?
Anthony Sharwood says it was time for the people down under to learn more about this man.
“We don’t as a nation, know who he was or his place in history, but we definitely know his name,” said Sharwood.
That’s because Australia’s highest mountain is Mount Kosciusko.
Sharwood says the mountain was named via a Polish explorer in 1840.
Now, 184 years later, the book explores Kosciuszko’s life story.
“This is not just a dry historical biography. This is me tapping my fellow Australians on the shoulder and going, hey, we all know the name, but who was the dude? Who was he? Let’s go together. Let’s get on the road together.”
And that road led to this part of the world last year when Sharwood decided to come to Mississippi, and he wound up in Kosciusko, visiting during the weekend of the 2023 Natchez Trace Festival.
G’day from Kosciusko Mississippi, birthplace of Oprah Winfrey. The town was named by an early landholder whose grandad fought with Tadeusz Kosciuszko in the revolutionary war. Trained in France & his native Poland, General Kos changed US history with brilliant military defences pic.twitter.com/kCEGbmapIU
— Anthony Sharwood ❄️ (@antsharwood) April 28, 2023
“I just thought, if I’m doing a road trip, why not go to the only town in the world of any size that’s named after Kosciuszko? I just couldn’t resist, and I had a great time in town.”
There’s a chapter in his book devoted to his visit here.
Little passage from Chapter 14, “Mississippi Yearning” in my Kosciuszko book as I read it through one last time ahead of printing on Monday.
This is the chapter where I visit Kosciusko (no z) Mississippi, the only town in the world named after Koz, where Oprah Winfrey was born! pic.twitter.com/IAHk7uyrn6
— Anthony Sharwood ❄️ (@antsharwood) August 1, 2024
Hard copies are being sold in Australia under the title “Kosciuszko, The Incredible Life of the Man Behind the Mountain,” but it’s going to be available anywhere as an e-book.”
“And if you can tolerate my Australian accent, you can listen to it as an audio book. “
The book goes on sale next week, Sept. 25.
Audio:
