Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer
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Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer (February 12, 1865 – January 18, 1940) was a Polish poet, novelist, playwright, journalist and writer. He was a member of the Young Poland movement.
Przerwa-Tetmajer was born in Ludźmierz near the Tatra Mountains in southern Poland (Podhale), and died in Warsaw. From 1884-1889 Przerwa-Tetmajer studied classics and philosophy at the Jagiellonian University. He then became a journalist for Kurier Polski. He lived both in the Tatras and in Kraków.
Przerwa Tetmajer wrote seven collections of poetry before World War I. After the war he moved to Warsaw to serve as president of the Society of Writers and Journalists. In 1934 he was made an honorary member of the Polish Literary Academy. Sadly, during the last years of his life he suffered from a mental illness which prevented him from writing.
In 1940 Przerwa-Tetmajer was living in a hospice, when the Nazis evicted all the occupants. He was left homeless and died shortly after in a Warsaw hospital.
According to Barry Keane from the Warsaw Voice:
| “ | Przerwa Tetmajer was primarily a lyrical poet who articulated the birth pangs of modernism at the turn of the century, but he will be best remembered for his erotic verse and for poems evoking his beloved Tatra mountains. He broke with age-old subtleties and niceties common to amorous poetry and wrote on love in frank and provocative terms. The poet simultaneously attracted huge praise from legions of readers and loud accusations of depravity from other quarters... at the close of the 19th century. [1] | ” |
Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer was a younger half-brother of painter Włodzimierz Tetmajer.
