PEIPER, TADEUSZ

PEIPER, TADEUSZ (1891–1969), Polish poet, playwright, and literary theorist. Born in Cracow, Peiper spent the years 1914–20 in Spain, returning to Poland in 1921, when he organized the Awangarda Cracow group of poets whose leading theorist he then became. During the years 1922–23 and 1926–27 Peiper edited the group's official periodical Zwrotnica. Believing that human progress depends on man's conquest of nature, he called for artistic glorification of the machine, technology, and invention as weapons in this struggle. Peiper also maintained that the poet's task was creative and utilitarian and that his duty was to write about organized human society in order to improve it. Although he did not succeed in founding a school, Peiper made a valuable contribution to Polish literature between the world wars. After the Nazi invasion, he fled to Moscow, where he contributed to the weekly Wolna Polska and to Nowe Horyzonty, returning to Warsaw after the defeat of Nazi Germany.

His works include verse collections such as A (1924), Żywe linie ("Living Lines," 1924), and Poematy (1935); Noweusta ("The New Mouth," 1925), a lecture on poetry; Tędy ("This Way," 1930), collected articles, essays, and sketches; plays such as Skoro go nie ma ("Since He is Not Here," 1933); and the novel Krzysztof Kolumb, odkrywca ("Christopher Columbus the Discoverer," 1949).

bibliography:

Słownik współczesnych pisarzy polskich, 2 (1964), 639–42.

[Stanislaw Wygodzki]