Stefan Themerson - Early Life

Early Life

Stefan Themerson was born in Płock in what was then part of the Russian Empire on 25 January 1910 and died in London on 6 September 1988. His father, Mieczysław Themerson, was a physician, social reformer and aspiring writer (some of his work was published) of Jewish descent. His mother, Ludwika Smulewicz. During the First World War Dr. Themerson served as a medical officer in the Tsar's army and his family lived in Riga, St. Petersburg and Wielkie Luki. In 1918 they returned to Płock, in an independent Poland, where Stefan attended the Jagiellonka Gymnasium. In this time he showed his first interest in photography and built a radio receiver. In 1928 Themerson went to Warsaw as a student, studying first physics at the University of Warsaw and then, after a year, architecture at the Warsaw Polytechnic, but actually spending most of his time working at photography, collage and film-making. His first published piece of writing was also in 1928. He never formally left his studies but gradually withdrew to follow his other interests. It was about then that Themerson met- or met again- Franciszka Weinles, an art student, whom he married in 1931.