Irzykowski was born in
Błaszkowa, near
Pilzno. He came from an aristocratic land-owning family that had fallen on hard times. From 1889 to 1893, he studied
Germanistics in
Lwów (Lemberg). From 1894 to 1895, he worked occasionally as a teacher, but his outspokenness prevented him from obtaining further work in that line. From 1895, he lived in Lwów and worked as a parliamentary and court stenographer. In 1903, he published one of the most original novels of that time,
Pałuba. In this highly complex and avantgarde work, he anticipated many innovations made by modern European experimentalists such as
James Joyce,
Virginia Woolf,
William Faulkner or
André Gide. The novel has never been translated, and in Poland, it was only truly appreciated in the second half of the 20th century. (Parts of this novel were translated into German language after World War II). In 1908, he moved to
Kraków, where he held a position as a stenographer and correspondent in the official correspondence office. Irzykowski played in chess tournaments at Lemberg and Kraków, winning against
Kohn,
von Popiel,
Chajes and Ameisen, and drawing against
Flamberg. After
World War I he moved to
Warsaw, where he headed the
Sejm (parliament) stenographic office. Irzykowski was coworker of "
Skamander", the
Wiadomości Literackie and in the years 1921 to 1933 of the
Robotnik. He raised his voice in many discussions on literature. He provided a theatre column on Polish radio and in the
Rocznik Literacki, and was a member of the Polish Literary Academy. At the same time he gave stenography instruction (also in German) to meet living costs. During the
German occupation of Poland, he was working on a novel
Wyspa ("Island") and was taking part in the cultural life of the underground. His nearly entire manuscript was lost in the
Warsaw Uprising where Irzykowski was wounded and soon died after release from
Żyrardów camp. ==Works==