Stanislaw Lem (1921-2006) was born in Lviv, then part of Poland. He is probably the most original and influential European science-fiction writer since H.G. Wells. Best known in the West for Tarkovsky's film of his novel Solaris, Lem wrote novels and stories that have been published all over the world. He is credited with anticipating in his writing artificial reality, e-books and nano-technology. His most famous works include The Star Diaries, The Cyberiad, The Summa Technologiae and The Futurological Congress.
A giant of 20th-century science fiction The Guardian Stanislaw Lem was for 50 years Poland's premier intellectual of the imagination -- John Clute The Independent