"Solaris" author Stanislaw Lem dead at 84

Polish science-fiction author Stanislaw Lem, whose novel "Solaris" was adapted twice into films, died Monday at 84.

"Shortly after 3 p.m., Stanislaw Lem died in the heart clinic, where he had been treated over the past few weeks for circulatory problems," Andrzej Kulig, director of Jagiellonian University hospital in Krakow, told Reuters.

Lem's books have sold more than 27 million copies and have been translated into over 40 languages. He wrote the screenplays for animated sci-fi shorts Wycieczka w Kosmos (1961) and Bezludna Planeta (1962), both released by Film Polski.

Solaris, his best-known work, was made into a film by director Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972. In 2002, Steven Soderbergh directed a version starring George Clooney and Natascha McElhone. His novel, set on an isolated space station, was published in 1961.

He was one of the most popular science-fiction authors in recent decades to write in a language other than English.

He was born on September 12, 1921 in Lviv, Poland (now Lvov, Ukraine) into a Polish-Jewish family. His father was a laryngologist.

Before World War II, Lem studied medicine at the Lvov Medical Institute. Lem survived the Nazi occupation with the aid of forged documents that hid his Jewish background.

Lem completed his medical studies at Jagellonian University in Krakow, but did not obtain a medical degree. Instead, he worked as a research assistant at the Konserwatorium Naukoznawcze.

Lem started writing science-fiction in 1946. His first important novel, Hospital of the Transfiguration, was censored by Communist authorities for eight years. It was finally released in 1956 during a thaw after the "Polish October" popular uprising and the death of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

He also received wide acclaim for The Cyberiad, a collection of stories from a mechanical world ruled by robots. It was first published in English in 1974.

Instead of becoming a doctor, Lem married one. He wrote such novels as The Investigation, Eden and Return from the Stars.

His other works included The Invincible, His Master's Voice, The Star Diaries, The Futurological Congress and Tales of Prix the Pilot.

Summa Technologiae (1964) looked at problems of virtual reality. His Katar (1975) offered an early examination at international terrorism, while 1982's Observations on the Spot probed a conflict between two civilizations.

Following the fall of Communism in 1989, Lem stopped writing science-fiction. He spent his time reporting on predictions of the near future for governments and organizations.

Lem wrote essays on computer crime, in addition to problems of technology and ethics that emerged due to the expansion of the Internet.

In 2003, the University of Bielefeld gave him an honorary doctorate degree in computer science.

Stanislaw Lem is survived by Barbara Lesniak, his wife since 1953, and by a son. Funeral arrangements were not announced.