Antoni Lange

Antoni Lange
Portrait of Antoni Lange by Stanisław Wyspiański, 1899
Born	1861 or 1863 Warsaw, Poland
Died	17 March 1929 Warsaw, Poland
Pen name	Antoni Wrzesień, Napierski
Occupation	Poet, Philosopher, Novelist, translator
Nationality	Polish
Period	19th–20th century
Genre	poem, epic poem, narrative poem, novel, short story, essay, drama, frame story
Literary movement	Modernism, Symbolism, Young Poland precursor to existentialism, collage, imagism and science-fiction
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Antoni Lange (1863 – 17 March 1929) was a Polish poet, philosopher, polyglot (15 languages), writer, novelist, science-writer, reporter and translator. A representative of Polish Parnassianism and symbolism, he is also regarded as belonging to the Decadent movement. He was an expert on Romanticism, French literature and a popularizer of Eastern cultures. His novel Miranda is known in some circles.

He translated English, French, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Indian, American, Serbian, Egyptian and Oriental writers into Polish and Polish poets into French and English. He was also one of the most original poets of the Young Poland movement. His work is often compared to Stéphane Mallarmé and Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle.

Lange was an uncle of the poet Bolesław Leśmian.

Lange was born in Warsaw into the patriotic Jewish family of Henryk Lange (1815–1884) and Zofia née Eisenbaum (1832–1897). His father took part in the November Uprising against the Russian Partition of Poland. He was an admirerer of Romantic literature and its ideals. Antoni Lange enrolled at Warsaw University but around 1880 he was expelled for his patriotic activity by the Tsarist namiestnik Apuchtin who ruled the university at that time. He supported himself financially as a tutor but also published poetry under the pen-names Napierski and Antoni Wrzesień. He decided to study in Paris where he encountered new trends in literature, philosophy and art. In France he became familiar with the theories of Jean Martin Charcot, as well as Spiritualism, parapsychology, the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche, oriental religions, European and Eastern literature and modern literary criticism. He took part in the literary meetings of Stéphane Mallarmé.