The Raven Post

Biography

Stefan Grabiński was born February 26, 1887, and died November 12, 1936. He was a writer notable for his work in the fantastical, supernatural, and horror fiction genres. He was also well-versed in demonology, parapsychology, and other matters of both the occult and artistic.

Born in Poland to a financially stable family, Grabiński struggled with various illnesses throughout his youth, thus providing him with plenty of time to indulge his literary interests while bedridden. Following his father’s death, his family relocated to Lviv, where he eventually graduated from high school and began studying Polish literature and philology at Jan Kazimierz University. Grabiński eventually discovered he had contracted tuberculosis, prompting him to delve even further into mysticism and the occult.

After working as a schoolteacher for a time, he began writing fiction in 1906 and self-published his debut short-story collection, Exceptions: In the Dark of Faith, in 1909. While this work received little critical praise, his second collection published nine years later, On the Hill of Roses, was more favorably regarded. Grabiński continued writing and publishing his works throughout his life; one of his most notable tales, “The Motion Demon,” became the title story for his collection of train-related fiction published in 1919.

Grabiński’s tuberculosis eventually worsened, and though he had achieved moderate success for his writing, he died solitary and impoverished in 1936. Nonetheless, he is remembered as a notable voice in Polish fiction and has been frequently anthologized in the years since his death.

Below is a selection of Grabiński’s most notable short fiction, particularly that which appeared in his collection “The Motion Demon.”* Read at your own discretion—and please, enjoy.

*Editor’s Note: Tales from Grabiński’s collection “The Motion Demon” are all we were able to reliably locate and reproduce while compiling this electronic anthology. Please forgive the vast gaps in this bibliography; we hope to amend this in the near future.

Short Stories by Stefan Grabiński

The Siding (1918)
In the Compartment (c. 1919)
The Perpetual Passenger (c. 1919)
The Wandering Train (1919)
Ultima Thule (1919)
The Motion Demon (1919)
The Sloven (1919)
Signals (1919)
Engine Driver Ghost (1919)