Born in Kraków into a family of painters, Maria Kossak grew up in the manor house known as the Kossakówka surrounded by artists, writers, and intellectuals.

Their passionate relationship based on shared interests and mutual love was an endless source of poetic inspiration for her.

Following her divorce, Maria Pawlikowska became associated with the Warsaw-based Skamander group of poets: Julian Tuwim, Jan Lechoń, Kazimierz Wierzyński, and other renowned writers such as Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Irena Krzywicka, Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna and Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński.

By 1939 she had written fifteen plays whose treatment of taboo topics such as abortion, extramarital affairs, and incest provoked scandals.

In 1937 Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska wrote an anti-Nazi play, Baba-dziwo, which was translated into English by Elwira M. Grossman and Paul J. Kelly as A Woman of Wonder.

Knowing Valida's weakness for perfume, she creates an intoxicating substance that eventually renders the vicious ruler powerless.