32 Facts About Zbigniew Herbert

Zbigniew Herbert is one of the best known and the most translated post-war Polish writers.

Zbigniew Herbert resumed publication in the 1980s, initially in the underground press.

Zbigniew Herbert received the 1963 Koscielski Prize, 1965 Jurzykowski Prize, 1965 Austrian State Prize for European Literature, 1973 Herder Prize, 1979 Petrarca-Preis, and 1991 Jerusalem Prize.

Zbigniew Herbert claimed to be a distant relative of the 17th-century Anglo-Welsh poet George Zbigniew Herbert.

Zbigniew Herbert studied economics in Krakow and attended lectures at the Jagiellonian University and at the Academy of Fine Arts.

Zbigniew Herbert lived in Sopot, where his parents moved in 1946.

Zbigniew Herbert worked different jobs; in the Polish National Bank in Gdynia, as a sub-editor of the journal Przeglad Kupiecki, and in Gdansk department of the Polish Writers' Union.

In 1949 Zbigniew Herbert moved to Torun, and worked in the District Museum and in primary school as a teacher.

Subsequently, Zbigniew Herbert moved to an official flat on Aleje Jerozolimskie.

Zbigniew Herbert published theatrical and musical criticisms and reports from exhibits which ignored the criteria of socrealistic art.

Zbigniew Herbert published under the pen name Stefan Martha in Dzis i Jutro, the PAX Association magazine.

Zbigniew Herbert had to undertake a job not connected with writing again.

Thanks to the help of Stefan Kisielewski, Zbigniew Herbert worked as a manager of the office of the Chief Management in the Union of Socialist Composers from September 1956 till March 1957.

Zbigniew Herbert was granted a scholarship that allowed him to go on his first trip abroad.

Zbigniew Herbert becomes a member of Academy of Arts in West Berlin and Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.

Zbigniew Herbert traveled across Germany, and then stayed longer in France.

Zbigniew Herbert then went back to Germany, visiting the Netherlands and Belgium.

Zbigniew Herbert went to New York, California, The Grand Canyon, New Mexico, New Orleans, Washington, DC and Los Angeles.

From 1975 to 1981, Zbigniew Herbert lived abroad, mainly in Germany, Austria and Italy.

Zbigniew Herbert's writings have become the manifesto of freedom, the expression of the resistance and the poet himself has become the symbol of uncompromised objection, especially for the young people.

In 1993 Zbigniew Herbert became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad invited Zbigniew Herbert to visit this exhibition because he wrote a book with essays about the "Golden age" of the Netherlands.

The first poems by Zbigniew Herbert were published in Dzis i jutro.

Zbigniew Herbert was introduced to a wider audience in Premiera pieciu poetow in the magazine Zycie Literackie.

In 1983 the Literary Institute in Paris published another book of poetry by Zbigniew Herbert entitled Raport z oblezonego Miasta i inne wiersze.

Zbigniew Herbert often uses elements of mythology, medieval heroes and works of art in his writing, which attracted the attention of the critics.

Zbigniew Herbert often used elements of Mediterranean culture in his works.

Zbigniew Herbert achieves a sort of precarious equilibrium by endowing the patterns of civilization with meanings, in spite of all its horrors.

Zbigniew Herbert himself defined it as a journey not only to places, but to books.

Zbigniew Herbert gave this volume to the Czytelnik publishing house in 1968, but later withdrew it.

Yet when addressing the history of Greece, Zbigniew Herbert focuses on episodes which occupy few pages in textbooks, and subverts established patterns.

The Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award is an award for lifetime achievement given to a living poet writing in any language.