Stanislaw Lem was born in Lwow in 1921. During WWII he was a car mechanic, then studied medicine and philosophy, and made his debut with poems and short stories. He received the literature prize of the city of Cracow for his first long novel, "Czas Nieutrocony" (1948-1950), Dr. Stefan T.'s path of errors.

While still a student Lem had been interested in cybernetics, and at the beginning of the fifties he turned to another litterary genre: science fiction. Lem became one of the most widely read Polish contemporary writers with 'Astronauci' (1951 Planet of Death) and 'Obłok Magellana' (The Magellan Cloud). In the following years, Lem wrote many utopian novels, amongst them Eden (1959) Śledztwo (The Trial) (1959) Powrót z gwiasd (1961, Return from the Stars) and several volumes of short stories.