WAT, ALEXANDER

WAT, ALEXANDER (Szymon Chwat; 1900–1967), Polish author, editor, and translator. Born in Warsaw, Wat was an active pamphleteer for the Polish "New Art," futurist movement, coediting Nowa Sztuka (1921–22) and the Almanach Nowej Sztuki (1924–25). From 1929 onward he edited the leftist literary monthly Miesięcznik Literacki and worked as a literary editor in the Gebethner and Wolff publishing house (1932–39). During World War II he lived in Soviet Kazakhstan, returning to Warsaw in 1946. He subsequently took a lead in postwar Polish literary life, but emigrated to France in 1963. His works include Bezrobotny Lucyfer ("The Unemployed Lucifer," 1927), collected stories; Ucieczka Lotha ("Lot's Escape," 1948–49), a novel; and Wiersze ("Poems," 1957). Wat's painful experiences in the U.S.S.R. and during the Stalinist period in postwar Poland shattered his Communist ideals. His last works, such as the verse collection Ciemne świecidło ("The Dark Spangle," 1968), which appeared posthumously in Paris, display a swing to religious feeling and mysticism, with the writer seeking a new road to an understanding of the world and its many complexities. Wat also published many translations from Russian and Western literature. (Stanislaw Wygodzki)