Marek Hłasko

Marek Hłasko
portrait of Marek Hłasko author Zbigniew Kresowaty
Born	(1934-01-14)14 January 1934 Warsaw
Died	14 June 1969(1969-06-14) (aged 35) Wiesbaden
Occupation	Writer

Marek Hłasko (14 January 1934 – 14 June 1969) was a Polish writer.

Hłasko's biography is highly mythologized, and many of the legends about his life he spread himself. Marek was born in Warsaw, as the only son of Maciej Hłasko and Maria Łucja, née Rosiak. At first he lived with his parents in Złotokłos; later they moved to Warsaw. In the Hłasko family, children were baptised relatively late, hence the writer-to-be was baptized on 26 December 1935 in the Church of the Holy Redeemer in Warsaw. It is said that during the baptism ceremony when asked if he renounces the evil spirits Marek answered "No". Later, these words were reported as the evidence of Marek's strong character.

Hłasko was three years old when his parents divorced in 1937. Maciej remarried a year later. He died on 13 September 1939, when his only son was five. The war left its stamp on Marek's psyche: later he wrote "it is obvious to me that I am a product of war times, starvation and terror; it is the reason for the intellectual poverty of my short stories. Simply, I cannot think up a story that does not end in death, catastrophe, suicide or imprisonment. Some people accuse me of pretending to be a strong man. They are wrong." At the outbreak of World War II, Hłasko's mother was working in the management secretariat of the City Power Station in Warsaw. During the occupation she was fired and ran a food stall till the beginning of the Warsaw uprising. As a result, the family's financial situation worsened. At this time Marek started his education; however, all documents that might provide information about his education were destroyed during the Warsaw Uprising. Among the schools that he attended was one near the St. Kazimierz Factory on Tamka Street. During the Warsaw Uprising, Marek stayed with his mother in Warsaw, and when it ended they moved to to the house of a friend. In March 1945, Maria and her son moved to Chorzów and two months later to Białystok, where she settled with Kazimierz Gryczkiewicz. In early 1946, Gryczkiewicz, Maria Hłasko and Marek moved to Wrocław.

In the summer of 1946, Marek Hłasko joined the Bolesław Chrobry First Wrocław Scout Troops. In order to become a member of the troop, Marek with his family's consent, gave 1933 as the year of his birth. Later he was dismissed from the scouts because of the poor attendance at the meetings. Marek worked as a messenger at the World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace, held in August 1948 in Wrocław.