Jan Lechoń (pseudonym of Leszek Józef Serafimowicz) was born in Warsaw in 1899 into a middling gentry intelligentsia family. The second of three boys, he debuted as a poetic

Wunderkind

at the age of thirteen. By the time he enrolled to study Polish philology at Warsaw University in 1916, he was already the author of two collections of poetry and a one-act play that had been performed by three of Warsaw’s leading actors. During his university years, Lechoń collaborated with the journal

Pro arte et studio,

the germ of interwar Poland’s most renowned poetic group, Skamander, which included Julian Tuwim, Kazimierz Wierzyński, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Antoni Słonimski, and Stanisław Baliński. In 1918 he helped found the group’s immensely popular artistic cabaret “Pod Picadorem”…

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Citation: Koropeckyj, Roman. "Jan Lechoń". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 March 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13707, accessed 19 March 2024.]

13707 Jan Lechoń 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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