Editing Witold Gombrowicz (section)

===Polish years===
[[File:Witold Gombrowicz Polish passport.jpg|thumb|upright|Passport photo, 1939]]
Gombrowicz was born in [[Małoszyce, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship|Małoszyce]] near [[Opatów]], then in [[Radom Governorate]], [[Congress Poland]], [[Russian Empire]], to a wealthy gentry family of the [[Kościesza coat of arms|Kościesza]] coat of arms. He was the youngest of four children of Jan Onufry and Antonina (née Ścibor-Kotkowska of the [[Clan of Ostoja|Ostoja]] coat of arms). In an autobiographical piece, ''A Kind of Testament'', he wrote that his family had lived for 400 years in Lithuania on an estate between [[Vilnius]] and [[Kaunas]] but were displaced after his grandfather was accused of participating in the [[January Uprising]] of 1863.<ref name="Gombrowicz2007">{{cite book|author=Gombrowicz, Witold|title=A Kind of Testament|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e2Tc_6U4Do4C&pg=PA28|date=1 September 2007|publisher=Dalkey Archive Press|isbn=978-1-56478-476-6|page=28}}</ref> He later described his family origins and social status as early instances of a lifelong sense of being "between" (''entre'').<ref name="Stewart2013">{{cite book|author=Stewart, Jon Bartley|title=Kierkegaard's Influence on Literature, Criticism and Art|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kFoUm8UtvbUC&pg=PA140|year=2013|publisher=Ashgate Publishing|isbn=978-1-4094-6514-0|page=140}}</ref> In 1911 his family moved to Warsaw. After completing his education at Saint Stanislaus Kostka's Gymnasium in 1922, Gombrowicz studied law at [[Warsaw University]], earning a [[Magister Juris|MJur]] in 1927.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Witold-Gombrowicz |title=Witold Gombrowicz |access-date=26 March 2020}}</ref> He spent a year in Paris, where he studied at the [[Institute of Higher International Studies]] ([[French language|French]]: ''Institut des Hautes Etudes Internationales''). He was less than diligent in his studies, but his time in France brought him in constant contact with other young intellectuals. He also visited the Mediterranean.

When Gombrowicz returned to Poland, he began applying for legal positions with little success. In the 1920s he started writing. He soon rejected the legendary novel, whose form and subject matter were supposed to manifest his "worse" and darker side of nature. Similarly, his attempt to write a popular novel in collaboration with Tadeusz Kępiński was a failure. At the turn of the 1920s and 1930s, Gombrowicz began to write short stories, later printed under the title ''Memoirs of a Time of Immaturity'', edited by Gombrowicz and published under the name ''Bacacay'', the street where he lived during his exile in Argentina. From the moment of this literary debut, his reviews and columns began appearing in the press, mainly the ''Kurier Poranny'' (''Morning Courier''). Gombrowicz met with other young writers and intellectuals, forming an artistic café society in Zodiak and [[Ziemiańska]], both in Warsaw. The publication of ''[[Ferdydurke]]'', his first novel, brought him acclaim in literary circles.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.gov.pl/web/kultura/bywa-iz-soba-zdumiewam-siebie-50-rocznica-smierci-witolda-gombrowicza |title="Bywa, iż sobą zdumiewam siebie." – 50. rocznica śmierci Witolda Gombrowicza |access-date=26 March 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|access-date=2025-05-18 |author=Konrad Walewski; John Clute |date=2024 |title=SFE: Gombrowicz, Witold |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/gombrowicz_witold |website=sf-encyclopedia.com}}<!-- auto-translated from Polish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref><!--then maybe use it as a source More about this period on [https://witoldgombrowicz.com/en/wgbio/poland-1904-1940/childhood witoldgombrowicz.com]-->