'''Karol Irzykowski''' (* 23. Januar 1873 in Błaszkowa bei Jasło; † 2. November 1944 in Żyrardów) war ein polnischer Schriftsteller, Literaturkritiker und Filmtheoretiker.

Irzykowski entstammte einer verarmten Landadelsfamilie. In den Jahren 1889 bis 1893 studierte er Ersten Weltkrieg zog er nach Warschau, wo er das stenographische Büro des Sejm leitete.

Irzykowski war Mitarbeiter des ''Polnischen Sozialistischen Partei. Er erhob seine Stimme in vielen Diskussionen zur Literatur. Er führte eine Theaterrubrik im Polnischen Radio und im ''Rocznik Literacki'', war daneben Mitglied in der polnischen Literaturakademie. In der Zeit der deutschen Besatzung gab er zum Lebensunterhalt Stenographieunterricht und beteiligte sich am kulturellen Leben im Untergrund. Er starb nach der Befreiung in Żyrardów.

==Werke==
* ''Pałuba'' – Roman (1903)
* ''Sny Marii Dunin'' [Die Träume der Maria Dunin] – Erzählungen  (1903)
* ''Dziesiąta Muza'' [Die zehnte Muse] – Filmtheoretisches Werk (1924)
* ''Walka o treść'' [Kampf um Inhalt] – Polemik mit Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (1929)
* ''Beniaminek'' – gegen Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński gerichtetes Pamphlet (1933)
* ''Słoń wśród porcelany'' [Der Elefant im Porzellanladen] – Skizzen (1934)

'''Karol Irzykowski''' (born 23 January Polish writer, literary critic, film theoretician, and chess player.

Irzykowski came of an aristocratic land-owning family that had fallen on hard times. In the years 1889 to 1893 he studied Germanistics in Lemberg. In the years 1894-1895 he worked occasionally as a teacher, but his outspokenness prevented him from having further work in that line. From 1895 he lived in Lemberg and worked as a parliamentary and court stenographer. 

In 1908 he moved to Kraków, where he had a position as a stenographer and correspondent in the official correspondence office. Irzykowski played in chess club tournaments in Lemberg and Kraków (he won games against Kohn, von Popiel, Chajes, Ameisen, and drew against Flamberg).

After the First World War he transferred to Robotnik'', official newspaper of the Polish Socialist Party. He raised his voice in many discussions on literature. He provided a theatre column on Polish radio and in the ''Rocznik Literacki'', and was a member of the Polish literary academy. At the same time he gave stenography instruction to the German crew to meet living costs and took part in the cultural life of the underground. He died after release in Żyrardów.