He was born in 1904 and passed away in 1969. He was a novelist, a playwright and an essayist. He studied law at the University of Warsaw and philosophy and economics in Paris.

In 1933 he published "Memoirs of a Time of Immaturity / Pamiętnik z okresu dojrzewania", a collection of stories, full of humour, playing with the form of "low literature" and completely misunderstood by the critics.

Four years later he published his first novel, "Ferdydurke", which presents fully the motives continued in further writings: the problem of immaturity and youth, the "faces", masks taken on by men in front of others, considerations concerning the straits of society and culture, especially the Polish one, noble, catholic and provincial. "Ferdydurke" caused sharp reactions of critics and divided the readers into worshipers and enemies of Gombrowicz. The book was appreciated by, among others, Bruno Schulz and Zofia Nałkowska. "We have long time ago forgotten in our literature such shocking events and such discharges as Witold Gombrowicz's novel "Ferdydurke". What we have here is an unusual manifestation of a writing talent, a new and revolutionary form and method of novel and finally a fundamental discovery, an annexation of a new field of spiritual phenomena, a masterless and no man's field, where only an irresponsible joke, a pun and a nonsense play around", wrote Bruno Schulz in his review of the book.

In 1938 Gombrowicz published his first drama, "Yvonne, princess of Burgundy / Iwona, księżniczka Burgunda", a grotesque about form, custom and ceremony growing and limiting the individual, who does not know how to and can not free himself. However, the text had no repercussions.

One month before the outbreak of the Second World War Gombrowicz boarded a ship to Argentine. He spent the war in South America, he chose the emigration but the close community of Polish emigrants in Argentina enervated him and made him laugh. His pre-war books were forgotten in the country and abroad they long couldn't gain renown. Jan Kott recalled in Rzeczpospolita Daily: "For many years, almost until the end of his emigration in Argentina, Gombrowicz lived on the verge of misery. He had his own table in a minor café in Buenos Aires, he played chess there with his young friends, out of which no one was a writer yet. He was translating "Ferdydurke" into Spanish page by page and sentence by sentence. Since he had left for Argentina none of his books was published in Poland. "Yvonne..." had never been staged. Many years passed before his name become famous in the world."

Only in the mid 1950s the Gombrowicz's first novel was reedited in Poland and "The Marriage / Ślub", the drama he wrote in 1946 in Argentina was published in Polish and French versions. "This play is a grotesque but strictly homologue transpositions of incidents, which took place in various forms in many countries of Central Europe and in Russia, incidents presented of course in Gombrowicz's aristocratic and Christian vision. (...) Both plays ("Yvonne..." and "The Marriage") have the grotesque in common, but in "The Marriage" it becomes really onyric. (...) In 1935 Gombrowicz puts on the stage a society in which he is still living and is part of; in 1946 he reconstitutes from a distance a historical process, which in his vision leads to abrogation of history." - wrote Lucien Goldmann comparing "The Marriage" to "Yvonne...".

Gombrowicz became internationally famous in the 1960s, when several of his works were published in Paris: "Pornography / Pornografia", "Cosmos / Kosmos", "Diary" which many literary experts find to be his best novel, and "Operetta / Operetka", a grotesque text for stage about the history and revolutions of the 20th century. "Why an operetta? Why does Gombrowicz associate it with modern art, when almost none of the men of theatre who respect themselves foes not even enter the halls where it displays its funny and silly rites? - wonders Jan Błoński. I think the reason is that the operetta (...) is the most conventionalised theatrical gender. The gestures are the most chary and the stereotypes are boasting the most obnoxiously." Gombrowicz's dramas started to be staged abroad and, with difficulties, in Poland. Then Gombrowicz also moved to Europe - first for a one year scholarship to West Berlin, and then he settled in the south of France, where he died and was buried.

Gombrowicz is one of exceptional writers in the history of literature, at least because of his philosophy, the way of constructing texts and the power of his language. He was unremittingly fighting with Polish tradition and history but this fight was only a starting point got creation of texts deep-seated in this very tradition and history but in the same universal. "Gombrowicz was always a writer, and a man, who didn't want to give himself, his imagination or his originality up for any price, to any people, gods, societies or doctrines. One may and has to add: he didn't want either to give up his own culture or agree with the secondary position of the land he had grown from." (Jan Błonski, About Gombrowicz, in: "Gombrowicz and the Critics").

"Gombrowicz's art can not be measured with the passing of several decades. It is a monument of Polish prose, a fragment of this whole, where also belong Pasek and Sienkiewicz. Thirty years after the author's death one may only ask, how does contemporary Poland compare to Poland , which he fought with wanting to introduce a notion of "sonland" instead of "fatherland". Is it the same, is it similar or completely different? There is no answer to this questions, especially while the true Poland did not appear in any literary work of last years." (Czesław Miłosz)

"The contemporary Polish theatre has Gombrowicz under its skin, beginning from Jurek Grotowski (without Gombrowicz there would be no "Apocalypsis Cum Figuris", said Puzyna one day) and finishing with Grzegorz Jarzyna. After 1989 no one looks in his work for a support against soviet lies and young people does not look there for inspiration to revolt; but as a model of lonely and independent intellectual, not compromising and painfully honest he is irreplaceable. In a way he disenchanted us and brought us closer to Europe by attacking and unmasking our Polish complexes." (Jerzy Jarocki)

Selected stagings of Gombrowicz's texts:

• 1958 - "Yvonne, princess of Burgundy", Dramatic Theatre (Teatr Dramatyczny) in Warsaw, directed by Halina Mikołajska
• 1974 - "The Marriage", Dramatic Theatre in Warsaw, directed by Jerzy Jarocki
• 1975 - "Operetta", New Theatre (Teatr Nowy) in Łódź, directed by Kazimierz Dejmek
• 1981 - "The Transatlantic / Trans-Atlantyk", Jaracz Theatre in Łódź, directed by Mikołaj Grabowski
• 1991 - "The Marriage", Old Theatre (Teatr Stary) in Krakow, directed by Jerzy Jarocki
• 1996 - "Crime with Malice Aforethough / Zbrodnia z Premedytacją", Jaracz Theatre in Lodz, directed by Zbigniew Brzoza
• 1997 - "Lawyer Kraykowski's Dance / Taniec mecenasa Kraykowskiego", Kochanowski Common Theatre (Teatr Powszechny im. Kochanowskiego) in Radom, directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski
• 1998 - "The Marriage", National Theatre (Teatr Narodowy) in Warsaw, directed by Jerzy Grzegorzewski
• 2000 - "Operetta", National Theatre in Warsaw, directed by Jerzy Grzegorzewski

Bibliography (first editions):

• "Pamiętnik z okresu dojrzewania / Memoirs of a Time of Immaturity", Warszawa: Roj 1933
• "Ferdydurke", Warszawa: Roj 1937
• "Trans-Atlantyk. Ślub / The Transatlantic. The Marriage", Paris: Instytut Literacki 1953
• "Dziennik 1953-1956 / Diary 1953-1956", Paris: Instytut Literacki 1957
• "Bakakaj / Bakakai", Krakow: Wydawnictwo Literackie 1957
• "Iwona księżniczka Burgunda / Yvonne, Princess of Burgundy", Warszawa: PIW 1958
• "Pornografia / Pornography", Paris: Instytut Literacki 1960
• "Dziennik 1957-1961 / Diary 1957-1961", Paris: Instytut Literacki 1962
• "Kosmos / Cosmos", Paris: Instytut Literacki 1965
• "Dziennik 1961-1966. Operetka / Diary 1961-1966. Operetta", Paris: Instytut Literacki 1966
• "Rozmowy z Gombrowiczem / A Kind of Testament", edited: Dominique de Roux, Paris: Instytut Literacki 1969 (translated from French)
• "Wspomnienia polskie. Wędrówki po Argentynie / Polish Memories. Wandering Across Argentina", in "Collected work" vol. 11, Paris: Instytut Literacki 1977
• "Dzieła zebrane / Collected work" vol. 1-11, Paris: Instytut Literacki 1969-1977
• "Dzieła / Works" vol. 1-10, Krakow: Wydawnictwo Literackie 1986-1992

Prepared in June 2002.

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