Kazimierz Tetmajer

Kazimierz Tetmajer (born February 12, 1865, Ludźmierz, Galicia [now in Poland]—died January 18, 1940, Warsaw) was a poet and short-story writer who was a member of the Young Poland movement.

Tetmajer belonged to a landowner’s family from the foothills of the Tatra Mountains. He studied philosophy in Kraków and in Heidelberg, Germany. Much of his lyric poetry received publication in the Kraków periodical Życie (“Life”). His nostalgic and pessimistic Poezje (“Poetry”), published in eight series between 1891 and 1924, shows the influence of the Romantic poet and playwright Juliusz Słowacki and of French and Belgian verse. Tetmajer’s collection of sketches and tales Na skalnym Podhalu (1903–10; Tales of the Tatras), written almost entirely in the local dialect, is considered his best work. Based in part on ancient legends of the Tatra Mountains area, these colourful stories describe the mountaineers, their violent lives, and their intense love of freedom.