Zbigniew Herbert (29 October 1924 – 28 July 1998) was a Polish poet, essayist, drama writer, author of plays, and moralist. A member of the Polish resistance movement, Home Army (AK), during World War II, he is one of the best known and the most translated post-war Polish writers. While he was first published in the 1950s (a volume titled String of light was issued in 1956), soon after he voluntarily ceased submitting most of his works to official Polish government publications. He resumed publication in the 1980s, initially in the underground press.
He was a distant relative of the 17th century poet George Herbert.
Herbert was educated as an economist and a lawyer. Herbert was one of the main poets of the Polish opposition to communism. Starting in 1986, he lived in Paris, where he cooperated with the journal Zeszyty Literackie. He came back to Poland in 1992. On 1 July 2007 the Polish Government instituted 2008 as the Year of Zbigniew Herbert.
Read more about Zbigniew Herbert: Awards and Prizes
Famous quotes containing the word herbert:
“Only if loves fire with the breath
Of life be kindled, I doubt,
With our last air ‘twill be breath’d out,
And quenched with the cold of death.”
—Edward Herbert (1583–1648)