Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (February 24, 1985-September 18, 1939) is the outstanding Polish dramatist of the first half of the twentieth century.  He wrote over thirty plays, many of which were neither performed or published during his lifetime, but which were discovered in the 1950s and 60s, when they played a major role in the development of the modern Polish theatre.  Witkiewicz was also a theatrical theorist, novelist, philosopher, and painter.  His colorful personality, unusual life (he went with the anthropologist Malinowski to Australia in 1914 and served as an officer in the Tsarist army during World War I), and tragic suicide at the outbreak of World War II have made Witkiewicz a hero of the avant-garde often compared to Antonin Artaud. 

The collection consists of an introduction dealing with the playwright's life and work, newly revised translations of seven of Witkiewicz's most important and representative plays written during the most creative period of his work for the theatre from 1919 to 1925, accompanied by two theoretical essays, and individual introductions to each of the plays.  The unifying theme of the collection, and of all Witkiewicz's work, is the problem of creativity.  The heroes of the plays are creators: painters, poets, musicians, as well as scientists, thinkers, and social activists--who are at odds with the universe, with their society, and with themselves.

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