Well back then Lviv (Lwów) was a Polish city. In Yalta, that part of Poland was taken from Poland (and "in return", borders were moved to the west). Many a person was forced to move from Lwów back then...
Personally I find your supposition amusing -- Lem thought about himself as Polish citizen, spoke Polish, wrote in Polish, lived in Poland. Both died and was born in Poland.
This reminds me of a joke, which went something like this:
-- Tell me, are there any famous Polish people?
-- For instance, Nicolaus Copernicus.
-- He was German!
-- No, no, he was Polish! Another one: Fryderyk Chopin, the famous musician.
-- He was French!
-- No, no, he was Polish! Say, another one: pope John Paul II!
-- He was Italian!!
-- No, no, he was Polish!... and so on.
Well-regarded Polish author? Well, being a Pole I can share some thoughts about interesting authors past and present. Most of them haven't been translated to English, yet some of them surely will be.
If we talk about Iron Courtain authors, Janusz Zajdel (died in 1985) is a must. He's novels like Limes Inferior or Paradyzja show great deal about falsehoods of governments, absurdities of total crontrol, etc. Much like Aldus Huxley's Brave New World, yet written from within iron courtain. A must. Translated. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janusz_A._Zajdel>
From current authors I would recommend Jacek Dukaj. His all books are original and different from eachother, he combines Gaiman's atmosphere with Dick's imagination and Zelazny's plot making... Yhh, well, highly original author, each and every book is a delight. A definite must read. Don't know if he's been translated (and the translation would be hard, as he, for example, uses special grammar for post-human beings (think: Brinn's uplift saga, only it's not vocabulary but grammar). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dukaj>
And finally, Edmund Wnuk-Lipiski with his Apostezjon trilogy. One of the best things I have read. It moved me deeply, as it brought deep insight on religion (among other things), given from the sci-fi perspective... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Wnuk-Lipi%C5%8 4ski>
Oh, and it's also worth to mention that Andrzej Sapkowski is one of the most known world-wide Polish authors, though it is not a sci-fi, but a fantasy and as such it has a bit different ideas and features to work on. It is good, but in my opinion if you are looking for something which does The Thing like Stanisaw Lem's work did, you should rather look for the former three authors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapkowski>
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Well back then Lviv (Lwów) was a Polish city. In Yalta, that part of Poland
... and so on.
was taken from Poland (and "in return", borders were moved to the west). Many
a person was forced to move from Lwów back then...
Personally I find your supposition amusing -- Lem thought about himself as
Polish citizen, spoke Polish, wrote in Polish, lived in Poland. Both died
and was born in Poland.
This reminds me of a joke, which went something like this:
-- Tell me, are there any famous Polish people?
-- For instance, Nicolaus Copernicus.
-- He was German!
-- No, no, he was Polish! Another one: Fryderyk Chopin, the famous musician.
-- He was French!
-- No, no, he was Polish! Say, another one: pope John Paul II!
-- He was Italian!!
-- No, no, he was Polish!
Well-regarded Polish author? Well, being a Pole I can share some thoughts
8 4ski>
about interesting authors past and present. Most of them haven't been translated
to English, yet some of them surely will be.
If we talk about Iron Courtain authors, Janusz Zajdel (died in 1985) is a must.
He's novels like Limes Inferior or Paradyzja show great deal about falsehoods of
governments, absurdities of total crontrol, etc. Much like Aldus Huxley's Brave
New World, yet written from within iron courtain. A must. Translated.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janusz_A._Zajdel>
From current authors I would recommend Jacek Dukaj. His all books are original and
different from eachother, he combines Gaiman's atmosphere with Dick's imagination
and Zelazny's plot making... Yhh, well, highly original author, each and every
book is a delight. A definite must read. Don't know if he's been translated (and
the translation would be hard, as he, for example, uses special grammar for post-human
beings (think: Brinn's uplift saga, only it's not vocabulary but grammar).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dukaj>
And finally, Edmund Wnuk-Lipiski with his Apostezjon trilogy. One of the best things
I have read. It moved me deeply, as it brought deep insight on religion (among other
things), given from the sci-fi perspective...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Wnuk-Lipi%C5%
Oh, and it's also worth to mention that Andrzej Sapkowski is one of the most known
world-wide Polish authors, though it is not a sci-fi, but a fantasy and as such it
has a bit different ideas and features to work on. It is good, but in my opinion
if you are looking for something which does The Thing like Stanisaw Lem's work did,
you should rather look for the former three authors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapkowski>