Culled from a lifetime's worth of publications, these essays by the Lithuanian-born Polish poet and Nobel laureate Milosz address the Polish experience at home and abroad in the 20th century. There couldn't be a better national spokesperson than this brilliant writer, who has taught Slavic Languages and Literature at UC Berkeley since the 1950s. As a sample of Milosz's prose, these selections cover everything from Polish poetry to modern philosophy to personal memoirs of life in Wilno, Warsaw, Paris and California.  (PLD25, $16.00)