Jerzy Giedroyc assessed Jeleński’s role in the following way: “I first met Kot Jeleński through Józio Czapski in Paris before we had made the move to Maisons-Laffitte. Our relations grew closer when we later met in Rome, where we were able to get to know each other better. Later, Józio as good as coerced Nabokov into admitting Kot to the Congress for Cultural Freedom, where he charmed everyone and became irreplaceable. His systematic collaboration with “Kultura” dates from this time. Without doubt he was the most accomplished literary critic in the Polish émigré world. In cultural matters, we saw eye to eye(...) It is to Kot that I owe my bearings in world literature, of which I know relatively little, and also, much more generally, in all of Western Culture, from poetry to art. He was a remarkable polymath”. („Autobiografia na cztery ręce” [Four Hands Autobiography]).