Zbigniew Herbert

Who was Zbigniew Herbert?

Zbigniew Herbert was a Polish poet, essayist, drama writer and moralist. A member of the Polish resistance movement, Home Army, during World War II, he is one of the best known and the most translated post-war Polish writers. While he was first published in the 1950s, soon after he voluntarily ceased submitting most of his works to official Polish government publications. He resumed publication in the 1980s, initially in the underground press.

He was a distant relative of the 17th-century poet George Herbert.

Herbert was educated as an economist and a lawyer. Herbert was one of the main poets of the Polish opposition to communism. Starting in 1986, he lived in Paris, where he cooperated with the journal Zeszyty Literackie. He came back to Poland in 1992. On 1 July 2007 the Polish Government instituted 2008 as the Year of Zbigniew Herbert.