Stanislaw Lem was born in Lvov, Poland in 1921 (now Lviv, Ukraine) as the son of a physician. He studied medicine at Lwów University and at Jagiellonian University in Cracow, but his studies were interrupted by World War II. During the war and nazi occupation Lem worked as a car mechanic and welder, and was a member of the resistance fighting against the Germans. Toward the end of the war Poland was occupied by the Red Army and the country was closely controlled by the Soviet Union for the next 50 years. In 1946 Lem moved to Cracow. After finishing his studies Stanislaw Lem received his MD. He worked a research assistant in a scientific institution and started to write stories on his spare time.
Lem has been awarded the honorary membership of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) in 1973, which was then removed in 1976 after his comments about recent science fiction literature. He descibed it as ill thought out, poorly written, and interested more in adventure than ideas or new literary forms. The SWFA then offered him a regular membership, which he refused.
Lem's books translated into and published in English:
![[Home]](wikipedia.png)