Born in a family of intellectuals in 1921, Pilinszky went on to study Hungarian literature, law, and art history at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, in 1938.

In 1944 he was drafted into the army; his unit being ordered to follow the retreating German allies, he arrived at Harbach, a small village in Germany, after a march of several weeks.

What he saw in the camps was an experience he never forgot and later commemorated in a great number of poems, most notably, KZ-oratórium ("KZ oratory"), Ravensbrücki passió ("Passion of Ravensbrück"), Harbach 1944, etc.

His last collection, Kráter ("Crater") was published in 1975, containing both new poems and the majority of his rather short, but extremely substantial and concise oeuvre rearranged in cycles.

His alleged homosexuality was object of study by the geneticist Endre Czeizel, who concluded that the poet could not accept his sexual orientation because of his religious views.