What is Stanislav Lem?
{{Infobox writer | name = Stanisław Lem | image = Stanisław Lem.jpg | imagesize = 240px | caption = Stanisław Lem and toy [[cosmonaut]] in 1966 | pseudonym = | birth_date = 12 September 1921 | birth_place = [[Lwów]], [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]] (now [[Ukraine]]) | death_date = 27 March 2006 (aged 84) | death_place = [[Kraków]], [[Poland]] | occupation = Writer | nationality = [[Poland|Polish]] | period = 1946–2005 | genre = [[Science fiction]], [[philosophy]], [[satire]] | subject = | signature = | website = {{url|http://lem.pl/}} |spouse=Barbara Lesniak (1953–2006; his death; 1 child)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/stanislaw-lem-472148.html |title=Stanislaw Lem - Obituaries - News |work=The Independent |date=2006-03-31 |accessdate=2014-02-10 |archive-date=2014-02-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140226171601/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/stanislaw-lem-472148.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> }} '''Stanisław Herman Lem''' ({{Audio|Pl-Stanisław Lem.ogg|listen}}) (September 12, 1921 – March 27, 2006) was a [[Poland|Polish]] [[science fiction]] writer. His writings are highly philosophical and [[satire|satirical]]. His books have been translated into 41 languages. Over 27 million copies of his books have been sold worldwide. At one point he was among the most widely read science fiction authors in the world. Lem's writing is full of intelligent humor, puns, and [[neologisms]], and [[Michael Kandel]]'s translations into English have been praised by many for capturing Lem's style. Lem is perhaps best known for his [[novel]] ''[[Solaris (novel)|Solaris]]''. This novel was published in 1961. It is set into the future. Humans have discovered what they think is intelligent life in space. They want to talk to the alien life form. The only problem they have is that the life form is the size of a planet. It is an ocean. This book has also been made into a film by [[Andrei Tarkowski]] in 1972. [[St