Stanislaw Lem (1921 – 2006) born in Lwow, Poland (now Ukranie) was a science fiction, satire and philosophy writer. In 1946 his family moved to Krakow as they didn’t want to become citizens of the USSR.
Same year Lem made his literary debut and published his first science fiction novel was Czlowiek z Marsa (The Man from Mars). While working as a scientific research assistant between 1947 and 1950 he published various poems, short stories and scientific essays, which had to be approved by the communistic regime. Some of his works have been suppressed by the authorities until 1955.
In late 50s and early 60s Lem published his first philosophical books, ‘Dialogi’ (Dialogues) and ‘Summa Technologiae’. In these works he discusses virtual reality and nanotechnology, which were completely science fiction then, but gaining importance today.
Lem gained international fame for ‘The cyberiad’, first published in English in 1974. Since then he became one of the leading representative of Polish science fiction and most translated Polish authors. His best known novels include ‘Solaris’ (1961), which was made into a film twice, ‘His Master’s Voice’ (1968) and ‘Fiasco’ (1987). He often criticised the films based on his work.
‘The New York Times Review of Books’ about Stanislaw Lem:
“The Polish writer Stanislaw Lem is both a polymath and a virtuoso storyteller and stylist. Put them together and they add up to a genius... He has been steadily producing fiction that follows the arcs and depths of his learning and a bewildering labyrinth of moods and attitudes. Like his protagonists, loners virtually to a man, his fiction seems at a distance from the daily cares and passions, and conveys the sense of a mind hovering above the boundaries of the human condition: now mordant, now droll, now arcane, now folksy, now skeptical, now haunted and always paradoxical. Yet his imagination is so powerful and pure that no matter what world he creates it is immediately convincing because of its concreteness and plentitude, the intimacy and authority with which it is occupied... read Lem for yourself. He is a major writer, and one of the deep spirits of our age.”
An interesting Times Online article about Lem from 2006 can be found here.
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