Karol Irzykowski

Karol Irzykowski (born 23 January 1873 in Błaszkowa near Pilzno, died 2 November 1944 in Żyrardów) was a Polish writer, literary critic, film theoretician, and chess player.

Irzykowski came of an aristocratic land-owning family that had fallen on hard times. In the years 1889 to 1893 he studied Germanistics in Lemberg. In the years 1894-1895 he worked occasionally as a teacher, but his outspokenness prevented him from having further work in that line. From 1895 he lived in Lemberg and worked as a parliamentary and court stenographer.

In 1908 he moved to Kraków, where he had a position as a stenographer and correspondent in the official correspondence office. Irzykowski played in chess club tournaments in Lemberg and Kraków (he won games against Kohn, von Popiel, Chajes, Ameisen, and drew against Flamberg).

After the First World War he transferred to Warsaw, where he headed the stenographic office of the Sejm. Irzykowski was coworker SKAM other, the "Wiadomości Literackie" and in the years 1921-1933 of the "Robotnik", official newspaper of the Polish Socialist Party. He raised his voice in many discussions on literature. He provided a theatre column on Polish radio and in the "Rocznik Literacki", and was a member of the Polish literary academy. At the same time he gave stenography instruction to the German crew to meet living costs and took part in the cultural life of the underground. He died after release in Żyrardów.

Works

*"Pałuba" [The Hag] (1903) novel
*"Sny Marii Dunin" [The Dreams of Maria Dunin] (1903) narrations
*"Dziesiąta Muza" [The Tenth Muse] (1924) film theory
*"Walka o treść" [Fight for Content] (1929) Polemic against Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz
*"Beniaminek" (1933) lampoon on Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński
*"Słoń wśród porcelany" [The Elephant in the Porzelanladen] (1934) sketches

Further reading

* Mortkowicz-Olczakowa, Hanna (1961). "Bunt wspomnień." Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy.