Stanisław Herman Lem (; 12/13 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer of science fiction and essays on various subjects, including philosophy, futurology, and literary criticism.
His essays and philosophical books cover these and many other topics. Translating his works is difficult due to Lem's elaborate neologisms and idiomatic wordplay. The Polish Parliament declared 2021 Stanisław Lem Year. ==Life== ===Early life=== Lem was born in 1921 in Lwów, interwar Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine) to a Jewish family.
In later years he would call himself both an agnostic and an atheist. After the 1939 Soviet occupation of Eastern Poland, he was not allowed to study at Lwow Polytechnic as he wished because of his "bourgeois origin", and only due to his father's connections he was accepted to study medicine at Lwów University in 1940.
In later years he would call himself both an agnostic and an atheist. After the 1939 Soviet occupation of Eastern Poland, he was not allowed to study at Lwow Polytechnic as he wished because of his "bourgeois origin", and only due to his father's connections he was accepted to study medicine at Lwów University in 1940.
The following year, 1955, saw the publication of another science fiction novel, The Magellanic Cloud (Obłok Magellana). During the era of Stalinism in Poland, which had begun in the late 1940s, all published works had to be directly approved by the communist state.
He would later recall: During that time, Lem earned a living as a car mechanic and welder, and occasionally stole munitions from storehouses (to which he had access as an employee of a German company) to pass them on to the Polish resistance. In 1945, Lwow was annexed into the Soviet Ukraine, and the family, along with many other Polish citizens, was resettled to Kraków, where Lem, at his father's insistence, took up medical studies at the Jagiellonian University.
Lem said that the sight of blood was one of the reasons he decided to drop medicine. ===Rise to fame=== Lem started his literary work in 1946 with a number of publications in different genres, including poetry, as well as his first science fiction novel, The Man from Mars (Człowiek z Marsa), serialized in (New World of Adventures).
Between 1948 and 1950 Lem was working as a scientific research assistant at the Jagiellonian University, and published a number of short stories, poems, reviews, etc., particularly at Tygodnik Powszechny.
Going by the date of the finished manuscript, Lem's first book was a partly autobiographical novel Hospital of the Transfiguration (Szpital Przemienienia), finished in 1948.
Between 1948 and 1950 Lem was working as a scientific research assistant at the Jagiellonian University, and published a number of short stories, poems, reviews, etc., particularly at Tygodnik Powszechny.
Nonetheless, most of Lem's works published in the 1950s also contain—forced upon him by the censors and editors—various elements of socialist realism as well as of the "glorious future of communism".
In 1951, he published his first book, The Astronauts (Astronauci).
In 1953 he met and married (civil marriage) Barbara Leśniak, a medical student. Their church marriage ceremony was performed in February 1954.
In 1953 he met and married (civil marriage) Barbara Leśniak, a medical student. Their church marriage ceremony was performed in February 1954.
In 1954, he published a short story anthology, [Sesame and Other Stories] .
The following year, 1955, saw the publication of another science fiction novel, The Magellanic Cloud (Obłok Magellana). During the era of Stalinism in Poland, which had begun in the late 1940s, all published works had to be directly approved by the communist state.
It would be published seven years later, in 1955, as a part of the trilogy Czas nieutracony (Time Not Lost).
Lem later criticized several of his early pieces as compromised by the ideological pressure. Lem became truly productive after 1956, when the de-Stalinization period in the Soviet Union led to the "Polish October", when Poland experienced an increase in freedom of speech.
Between 1956 and 1968, Lem authored seventeen books.
His writing over the next three decades or so was split between science fiction and essays about science and culture. In 1957, he published his first non-fiction, philosophical book, Dialogues, as well as a science fiction anthology, The Star Diaries (Dzienniki gwiazdowe), collecting short stories about one of his most popular characters, Ijon Tichy.
In Poland, in the 1960s and 1970s, Lem remained under the radar of mainstream critics, who dismissed him as a "mass market", low-brow, youth-oriented writer; such dismissal might have given him a form of invisibility from censorship.
Worldwide, he is best known as the author of the 1961 novel Solaris, which has been made into a feature film three times.
In 1964, Lem published a large work on the border of philosophy and sociology of science and futurology, Summa Technologiae, as well as a novel, The Invincible (Niezwyciężony). 1965 saw the publication of The Cyberiad (Cyberiada) and of a short story anthology, The Hunt ().
Between 1956 and 1968, Lem authored seventeen books.
1966 is the year of Highcastle (Polish title: Wysoki Zamek), followed in 1968 by His Master's Voice (Głos Pana) and Tales of Pirx the Pilot (Opowieści o pilocie Pirxie).
Lem himself was, however, critical of most of the screen adaptations, with the sole exception of Przekładaniec in 1968 by Andrzej Wajda.
Their only son, Tomasz, was born in 1968.
1968 and 1970 saw two more non-fiction treatises, The Philosophy of Chance (Filozofia przypadku) and Science Fiction and Futurology (Fantastyka i futurologia).
Later in that decade, Lem published Pokój na Ziemi (1984) and Fiasco (1986), his last science fiction novel. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Lem cautiously supported the Polish dissident movement, and started publishing essays in Paris-based Kultura.
In Poland, in the 1960s and 1970s, Lem remained under the radar of mainstream critics, who dismissed him as a "mass market", low-brow, youth-oriented writer; such dismissal might have given him a form of invisibility from censorship.
Ijon Tichy returned in 1971's The Futurological Congress Kongres futurologiczny; in the same year Lem released a genre-mixing experiment, Doskonała próżnia, a collection of reviews of non-existent books.
Lem was responsible for the Polish translation of Dick's work Ubik in 1972, and when Dick felt monetarily short-changed by the publisher, he held Lem personally responsible (see Microworlds).
In 1973 a similar work, Imaginary Magnitude (Wielkość urojona), was published.
In 1976 Theodore Sturgeon wrote that Lem was the most widely read science fiction writer in the world.
In 1976, Lem published two novels: Maska (The Mask) and Katar (translated as The Chain of Chance).
In 1976, Theodore Sturgeon wrote that Lem was the most widely read science fiction writer in the world.
In 1980, he published another set of reviews of non-existent works, Prowokacja.
Later in that decade, Lem published Pokój na Ziemi (1984) and Fiasco (1986), his last science fiction novel. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Lem cautiously supported the Polish dissident movement, and started publishing essays in Paris-based Kultura.
He returned to Poland in 1988. ===Final years=== From the late 1980s onwards, he tended to concentrate on philosophical texts and essays, published in Polish magazines (Tygodnik Powszechny, Odra, Przegląd, and others).
They were later collected in a number of anthologies. In early 1980s literary critic and historian Stanisław Bereś conducted a lengthy interview with Lem, which was published in book format in 1987 as Rozmowy ze Stanisławem Lemem (Conversations with Stanisław Lem).
In 1982, with martial law in Poland declared, Lem moved to West Berlin, where he became a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin).
In 1982, with the onset of the martial law in Poland Lem moved to Berlin for studies and next year he moved for several years (1983-1988) to Vienna.
Dick, in a 1984 English-language anthology of his critical essays, Writings on Science Fiction and Fantasy.
The book jacket says Tomasz works as a translator and has a daughter, Anna. As of 1984, Lem's writing pattern was to get up a short time before five in the morning and start writing soon after, for 5 or 6 hours before taking a break. Lem was an aggressive driver.
They were later collected in a number of anthologies. In early 1980s literary critic and historian Stanisław Bereś conducted a lengthy interview with Lem, which was published in book format in 1987 as Rozmowy ze Stanisławem Lemem (Conversations with Stanisław Lem).
He returned to Poland in 1988. ===Final years=== From the late 1980s onwards, he tended to concentrate on philosophical texts and essays, published in Polish magazines (Tygodnik Powszechny, Odra, Przegląd, and others).
Lem). In the early 1990s, Lem met with the literary critic and scholar Peter Swirski for a series of extensive interviews, published together with other critical materials and translations as A Stanislaw Lem Reader (1997).
A revised, complete edition was published in 2002 as Tako rzecze… Lem (Thus spoke...
During later interviews in 2005, Lem expressed his disappointment with the genre of science fiction, and his general pessimism regarding technical progress.
Stanisław Herman Lem (; 12/13 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer of science fiction and essays on various subjects, including philosophy, futurology, and literary criticism.
Since 2011 the Garden has been organizing out the competition "Lemoniada", inspired by the creative output of Lem. ==Political views== Lem's early works were socialist realist, possibly to satisfy state censorship, and in his later years he was critical of this aspect of them.
She died on 27 April 2016.
His essays and philosophical books cover these and many other topics. Translating his works is difficult due to Lem's elaborate neologisms and idiomatic wordplay. The Polish Parliament declared 2021 Stanisław Lem Year. ==Life== ===Early life=== Lem was born in 1921 in Lwów, interwar Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine) to a Jewish family.
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