Author, sculptor, heretic Stanislav Szukalski was born in Warta, Poland, on December 13, 1893. He came to the United States and lived in Chicago when he was in his teens. He became a member of the Chicago renaissance luminaries along with Ben Hecht, Carl Sandburg and Clarence Darrow. Two books were published during those years, The Work of Szukalski (Covici-McGee, 1923) and Projects in Design (University of Chicago Press, 1929). Szukalski returned to Poland to work on his sculpture, but was stopped by the Siege of Warsaw in 1939. Having lost his entire life's work by the War, he managed to escape to America to live in California with his wife, Joan Donovan. Living in obscurity, he returned to his writing, painting and sculpture. Two other publications were issued during his lifetime: A Troughful of Pearls (Bray/Zwalve, 1980) and Inner Portraits (Bray/Zwalve, 1982).

Szukalski died in Burbank, California on May 19th, 1987. A year later his and his wife's ashes were scattered at Rano Raraku, the sculptors' quarry on Easter Island.