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STANISŁAW LEM
Born 12 September 1921 in Lvow (now Ukraina), Lem is without doubt the leading SF writer on the continent of Europe. He studied medicine in Lvov (1939–1941, and again 1944–1946), and Cracow (1946–1948), without taking a degree. After the German attack on the Soviet Union he worked as a mechanic for the German Wehrmacht. His first story was written during that time purely as a diversion and published in 1946 in the dime novel series Nowy świat przygód ('New World of Adventure'): 'Człowiek z Marsa' (The Man from Mars). His first SF books were Astronauci (1951) and Obłok Magellana (1955) in which he envisioned a bright socialist future, but his first novel was the contemporary Szpital przemienienia, published as part 1 of the trilogy Czas nieutracony (1955, 'Time Not Lost'; only the first novel was translated by William Brand as Hospital of the Transfiguration (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988). Lem also wrote philosophical discourses on cybernetics (Dialogi, 1957) and futurology (Summa technologiae, 1964), a meandering tome on the theory of literature (Filozofia przypadku, 1968), a highly theoretical tome on SF (Fantastyka i futurologia, 1970), and an autobiographical novel on his youth in Lvov (Wysoki Zamek, 1968, translated by Michael Kandel as Highcastle, New York: Harcourt Brace, 1995). With translations into some 36 languages and a world circulation of more than 20 million copies, Lem is the most successful author in modern Polish fiction; nevertheless his commercial success in the world is limited, and the bulk of his large editions was due to the special publishing conditions in the Communist countries: Poland, the Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic. Only in West Germany was Lem really a critical and a commercial success, but in all other countries his sales are very modest, and in recent years interest in him has waned. But he is the only writer of European SF of whom most books have been translated into English, and, despite poor sales, been kept in print in the USA. Lem's critical success in English is due mostly to the excellent translations of Michael Kandel, who, even when he was not named as a translator, re-wrote most of Lem's translations from scratch, except those of Louis Iribarne. Lem's SF novels in English are, all published by Harcourt Brace, except the earliest: The Chain of Chance (1978, translation by Louis Iribarne of Katar, 1976); Eden (1989, translation by Marc E. Heine of Eden, 1959), Fiasco (1987, translation by Michael Kandel of Fiasko, Poland, 1987, first published in German translation 1986); The Futurological Congress (New York: The Seabury Press, 1974, translation by Michael Kandel of Kongres futurologiczny, 1971 – published as part of Bezsenność), His Master's Voice (1983, translation by Michael Kandel of Głos Pana, 1968), The Investigation (New York: The Seabury Press, 1974, translation by Adele Milch of Śledztwo, 1959), The Invincible (New York: The Seabury Press, 1973, translation by Wendayne Ackerman of the German edition of Niezwyciężony, 1964), Memoirs Found in a Bathtub (New York: The Seabury Press, 1973, translation by Michael Kandel (only the introduction) and Christine Rose of Pamiętnik znaleziony w wannie, 1961), Peace on Earth (1994, translation by Michael Kandel and Elinor Ford of Pokój na ziemi, Poland, 1987, but published in Swedish, French and German 1986), Return from the Stars (1980, translation by Barbara Marszal and Frank Simpson of Powrót z gwiazd, 1961), Solaris (New York, Walker & Co., 1970; London: Faber and Faber, 1970, translation by Joanna Kilmartin and Steve Cox of the French translation of Solaris, Poland, 1961) – filmed by Andrei Tarkovsky in a masterful author's film.
Short story collections, mostly cycles of stories, are: The Cosmic Carnival of Stanisław Lem (New York: A Continuum Book, 1981), a reader selected by Michael Kandel; The Cyberiad: Fables for the Cybernetic Age (New York: The Seabury Press, 1974, translation by Michael Kandel of Cyberiada, 1965); The Star Diaries (New York: The Seabury Press, 1976, translated by Michael Kandel) and Memoirs of a Space Traveler (1982, translated by Joel Stern and Maria Swiecicka-Ziemianek) – these two volumes comprise the Dzienniki gwiazdowe (1957, many later enlarged editions); Tales of Pirx the Pilot (1979, translated by Louis Iribarne) and More Tales of Pirx the Pilot (1982, translated by Louis Iribarne, Magdalena Majcherczyk and Michael Kandel) – Opowieści o pilocie o Pirxie, 1968, individual stories published previously in many different collections; and Mortal Engines (New York: The Seabury Press, 1977, translated and selected by Michael Kandel, contains the Bajki robotów, 1964, a forerunner of The Cyberiad). A hybrid form between story and essay, often in the form of reviews or of introductions to non-existent books, is offered in the collections A Perfect Vacuum (1979, translation by Michael Kandel of Doskonała próżnia, 1971), Imaginary Magnitude (1984, translation by Marc E. Heine of Wielkość urojona, 1973) and One Human Minute (1986, translated by Catherine S. Leach of Biblioteka XXI wieku, 1986, but first published in German translation 1983). Excerpts from Lem's criticism of SF are offered in Microworlds: Writings on Science Fiction and Fantasy, ed. Franz Rottensteiner (1984). Untranslated remain the early SF novels, a huge sprawling novel Wizja Lokalna (1982), the non-serial SF short stories, and most of Lem's non-fiction writings. Lem has hardly written any fiction since Peace on Earth, and his latest Polish books are collections of journalistic ephemera: Lube czasy (1995), Sex Wars (1996), Tajemnica chińskiego pokoju (1996) and Dziury w całym (1997).
Notes on the Authors // View from Another Shore. – Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1999. – P. 252-254.
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© 1999 Rottensteiner Franz, текст