The Motion Demon

Macabre trains and maverick railwaymen inhabit the world of THE MOTION DEMON, a translation of the highly-original short story collection from the pen of Stefan Grabinski, first published in 1919. Sometimes called the "Polish Poe" or the "Polish Lovecraft," Grabinski is a unique voice in fantastique literature who crafted his own style and addressed themes that no other horror/fantasy writer at the time was exploring. Grabinski's work was largely ignored in his native country during his life, but in recent times there has been growing international interest in this writer, with notable voices, such as author China Mieville, proclaiming him a master of horror/fantasy. Translator Miroslaw Lipinski introduced the writings of Stefan Grabinski to English-speaking readership, first with translations in the small press, and then with the short story collections THE DARK DOMAIN (1993), THE MOTION DEMON (2005) and ON THE HILL OF ROSES (2012). Of Polish ancestry and British-birth, Lipinski resides in New York. He is currently working on a mammoth volume of Grabinski stories for Centipede Press' "Masters of the Weird Tale" series.

One of the most important voices in fantastique literature, Stefan Grabinski, was born in the small town of Kamionka Strumilowa, Poland on 26 February 1887. Not part of any literary clique or movement, he suffered for his originality and the limitations imposed on him by being a writer in a country that did not fully recognize his work or take it seriously. Sickly and suffering from bone tuberculosis at an early age, Grabinski became seduced by the supernatural and introverted explorations into the mysteries of life. For his daily bread, he worked as a teacher in a secondary school, but his passion was writing strange fictions that focused on his atypical concerns and interests. Though he was regularly published in Poland and received attention for his train collection, Demon ruchu (The Motion Demon), Grabinski remained a marginal figure in his native land and was not part of any fashionable literary school or clique. Upon his death in 1936 (from tuberculosis), he was almost completely forgotten. In recent decades there has been a resurgence of interest in his work, and he is now becoming internationally acknowledged as a master of the weird tale, with short stories collections published in translation in various languages.