Witkiewicz, Stanislaw Ignacy

(pseudonym, Witkacy). Born Feb. 24, 1885, in Kraküw; died Sept. 18, 1939, in Jeziory near Pabrowice. Polish writer.

Witkiewicz began publishing in 1919 and was a representative of the Polish literary avant-garde. He is the author of more than 30 plays, in which reality is grotesquely deformed and which closely approach the “theater of the absurd.” Witkiewicz also wrote the novels Farewell to Autumn (1927) and Insatiability (1930), depicting in abstract, Utopian form the drama of mankind and the fall of civilization. In his philosophical works on painting and the theater Witkiewicz proclaimed the cult of “pure form,” independent of content. Witkiewicz committed suicide during the invasion by Hitler’s army.