The Polish Museum in Rapperswil houses the private archive of writer, novelist and commentator on politics Józef Mackiewicz (1902–1985). This archive was catalogued and made accessible in 2006. It is of great value for studying the professional and private network of the writer. Mackiewicz maintained contacts with a large number of persons and institutions belonging to the Polish exile community and exiles from other Eastern European countries.

In the article, I propose to study this kind of material with the help of Florian Znaniecki’s concept of social circle, i.e. a “virtual audience or public to which a thinker addresses himself”. The concept helps to bring out the importance of specific emigration conditions – above all, the writer’s change of surrounding cultural environment and change of audience. Using the example of the correspondence between Józef Mackiewicz and film producer Józef Fryd (1905–1994) about (ultimately unrealized) plans to screen Mackiewicz’s novel The Colonel Myasoyedov Affair (1964), I show how the discussion on the script highlights his changing perception of the audience, and his adjustment to another media. Mackiewicz’s letters constitute the rare occasion when he comments in detail on the novel.