Witold Gombrowicz

Witold Gombrowicz , 1904–69, Polish writer. Gombrowicz is recognized as an original satirist, an existential innovator who mingled the real with the unreal to convey a highly personal vision of the world. After studying law at the Univ. of Warsaw, he published his first collection of short stories (1933). This was followed in 1937 by his brilliantly original satirical novel Ferdydurke (tr. 1961, 2000), which created a literary scandal. From 1938 to 1962 he lived in Buenos Aires, where he wrote a number of well-known diaries. His subsequent work was not published in Poland until the 1950s. His later major novels include Trans-Atlantyk (1953, tr. 1995), Pornografia (1960, tr. 1966, 2009) and Kosmos (1965; tr. Cosmos, 1967). His plays include Princess Ivona (1938, tr. 1969) and The Marriage (1947, tr. 1969). From 1964 until his death Gombrowicz lived in France.

Bibliography: See his A Kind of Testament (tr. 1972); study by E. M. Thompson (1979).