Mieczysław Marian Smolarski (April 6, 1888,

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

– January 21, 1967,

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

) was a Polish writer and poet, whose works included examples of the

utopian novel Utopian and dystopian fiction are subgenres of speculative fiction that explore extreme forms of social and political structures. Utopian fiction portrays a setting that agrees with the author's ethos, having various attributes of another reality ...

in Polish

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

, two of which were allegedly plagiarized by

Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley ( ; 26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction novel, non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the ...

for his landmark novel ''

Brave New World ''Brave New World'' is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931, and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hier ...

''. He was a close friend of

Stefan Żeromski Stefan Żeromski ( ; 14 October 1864 – 20 November 1925) was a Polish novelist and dramatist belonging to the Young Poland movement at the turn of the 20th century. He was called the "conscience of Polish literature". He also wrote under ...

and

Karol Irzykowski Karol Irzykowski (23 January 1873 – 2 November 1944) was a Polish writer, literary critic, film theoretician, and chess player. Between 1933 and 1939 in the Second Polish Republic he was a member of the prestigious Polish Academy of Literature ...

. His novels and short stories were inspired by the fantastic works of

Antoni Lange Antoni Lange (28 April 1862 – 17 March 1929) was a Polish poet, philosopher, polyglot (15 languages), writer, novelist, science-writer, reporter and translator. A representative of Polish Parnassianism and symbolism, he is also regarded as ...

and

Stefan Grabiński Stefan Grabiński (26 February 1887 – 12 November 1936) was a Polish writer of Fantastique, fantastic literature and Horror story, horror stories. He is sometimes referred to as the "Polish Edgar Allan Poe, Poe" or "Polish Howard Phillips Lovec ...

. His poems were influenced by the traumatic experiences of both World Wars.

Biography

He was born on April 6, 1888, in Kraków, to Kazimierz Smolarski (a lawyer) and Maria Smolarski (''née'' Ripper). In 1906, he began studying law at the

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (, UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by Casimir III the Great, King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and one of the List of oldest universities in con ...

, but after the first half of a year he switched to the Faculty of Philosophy, to study the history of literature, art history, and philosophy, earning a doctorate in 1911. In 1912 he moved for a year to Paris. After returning to Poland in 1914 he became an employee at

Czartoryski Museum The Princes Czartoryski Museum ( ) – often abbreviated to Czartoryski Museum – is a historic museum in Kraków, Poland, and one of the country's oldest museums. The initial collection was formed in 1796 in Puławy by Princess Izabela Czartor ...

in Kraków. In 1916–18, he was a middle school teacher in

Zakopane Zakopane (Gorals#Language, Podhale Goral: ''Zokopane'') is a town in the south of Poland, in the southern part of the Podhale region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. From 1975 to 1998, it was part of Nowy Sącz Voivodeship; since 1999, it has ...

. In 1918 he moved permanently to Warsaw, where he became deputy head of Bureau for the Council of State of the

Kingdom of Poland The Kingdom of Poland (; Latin: ''Regnum Poloniae'') was a monarchy in Central Europe during the Middle Ages, medieval period from 1025 until 1385. Background The West Slavs, West Slavic tribe of Polans (western), Polans who lived in what i ...

, whose creation was contemplated in the later years of WWI. After the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 7 October 1918 and 6 October 1939. The state was established in the final stage of World War I ...

was established instead, at the end of the war, he was appointed to a position on the administration of the

Sejm The Sejm (), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (), is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of the Third Polish Republic since the Polish People' ...

(Polish Parliament). In May 1934 he resigned from this job due to a conflict with the new director of the Bureau Władysław Dziadosz. After some time he was employed as an official in the Foreign Ministry, where he worked until the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. In 1928, he declared his accession to the Polish Literary Chamber (Council). He was a founding member of the Polish

PEN Club PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internati ...

. In 1929, he was the founder and chairman of the Polish Fiction Association, active until 1937. He spent the years of the

German occupation German-occupied Europe, or Nazi-occupied Europe, refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly militarily occupied and civil-occupied, including puppet states, by the (armed forces) and the government of Nazi Germany at ...

in the capital. In the summer of 1940 he was arrested by the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

and was imprisoned in

Pawiak Pawiak () was a prison built in 1835 in Warsaw, Congress Poland. During the January 1863 Uprising, it served as a transfer camp for Poles sentenced by Imperial Russia to deportation to Siberia. During the World War II German occupation ...

for several weeks. During the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising (; ), sometimes referred to as the August Uprising (), or the Battle of Warsaw, was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from ...

of 1944 his house was destroyed, like much of the city. After the war, in 1945 he became the deputy curator in the

Nieborów Nieborów is a village in Łowicz County, Łódź Voivodeship, in central Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Nieborów. It lies approximately east of Łowicz and north-east of the regional capital Łód� ...

branch of the

National Museum of Warsaw The National Museum in Warsaw (, MNW) is a national museum in Warsaw, one of the largest museums in Poland and the largest in the capital. It comprises a rich collection of ancient art (Egyptian, Greek, Roman), counting about 11,000 pieces, an ext ...

. In the years 1946-1951 - when the desolate Warsaw was being rebuilt - he stayed in

Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...

, which served as a temporary capital. Then he returned to Warsaw, where among other things he wrote several travel guides. After the war, he was a member of the

Polish Writers' Union The Polish Writers' Union or the Union of Polish Writers (, ZLP) was established at a meeting of Polish writers and activists in Lublin behind the Soviet front line, during the liberation of Poland by the Red Army in 1944. Its initial name (Prof ...

and from 1957 the Writers' Club "Krąg".

Alleged plagiarism by Huxley

His books ''Miasto światłości'' (''The City of Light'', 1924) and ''Podróż poślubna pana Hamiltona'' (''The Honeymoon Trip of Mr. Hamilton'', 1928) were allegedly

plagiarized Plagiarism is the representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 '' Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of anothe ...

in ''

'', published in 1932. Since the books were translated to English (as well as to Russian, Spanish, Italian and German) Huxley could have had a chance to read them. The assertions of plagiarism were considered by the PEN Club, but there was no resolution.

Personal life

His wife was Halina Bronikowska-Smolarska (1888–1964) a poet. His son Bohdan (1924–1943) was a soldier of the anti-Nazi underground

Armia Krajowa The Home Army (, ; abbreviated AK) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) established in the ...

(Home Army), serving in the "VIII Strike Personnel Battalion" of Lieutenant Zbigniew Czarnocki "Czarny". He was among 24 underground fighters who were betrayed by an inhabitant of the village of Stryjówka and perished nearby in an unequal fight with the German Army and Military Police, on September 20, 1943. The name of Podchor. (Ensign) Bohdan Smolarski "Krzysztof" appears among the other names of the fallen fighters, on a plaque erected there after the war, affixed to a tall obelisk surrounded by young trees, fenced and well maintained.Information translated from Polish-language Armija Krajowa Memorial Websit

Bibliography

* ''Warneńczyk'' (1920–1921) * ''Archiwariusz Gordon'' (Archivist Gordon) (1921) * '' The City of Light (novel), Miasto światłości'' (1924) * ''Czarcie kręgi'' (1926) * ''Poszukiwacz złota'' (1927) * ''Podróż poślubna pana Hamiltona'' (1928) * ''Lalka Hanny Korda'' (1929) * ''Przygoda jednej nocy'' (1932) * ''Światło nad księgami'' (1954) * ''W złoconych pałacach wielkiego chana'' (1956) * ''Pierścień z Apollonem'' (1957)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smolarski, Mieczyslaw 1888 births 1967 deaths Jagiellonian University alumni Polish male novelists Writers from Kraków 20th-century Polish poets 20th-century Polish novelists Polish male poets 20th-century Polish male writers Polish science fiction writers