Karol Irzykowski

Karol Irzykowski (23 January 1873 – 2 November 1944) was a Polish writer, literary critic, film theoretician, and chess player.

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.

Irzykowski played in chess tournaments at Lemberg and Kraków, winning against Kohn, von Popiel, Chajes and Ameisen, and drawing against Flamberg.

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.