LEM S. - Time not lost. 1st ed.

LEM Stanislaw - Czas nieutracony. Cracow 1955. literary publishing house. 8, s. 661, [1]. Orig. binding, fawn.
Covers rubbed and somewhat soiled, otherwise good condition.
"Time Not Lost " - a novel trilogy by Stanislaw Lem, first published in 1955. It consists of 3 volumes: Hospital of Transfiguration, Among the Dead, The Return. Originally, the author planned to publish only Hospital of Transfiguration (as a stand-alone novel), which he finished writing in September 1948. The book was to be published by a private publisher - Gebethner and Wolff publishing house, but the printing was stopped by the censors. The reason for this was that the book was written just before the announcement of socialist realism as the leading creative doctrine in Poland at the time, hence the editors ordered the then young Lem to add party-communist themes to the book. After taking these suggestions into account, the novel was enlarged to a three-part one in 1950, but even so, its publication was blocked until the thaw in 1955. By then, the book was clearly anachronistic, and a major difference in style between the first and subsequent parts was evident. [...]" (Wikipedia).