Zbigniew Herbert was born in Lwów, Poland, in 1924. Herbert studied law, economics, and philosophy at the universities of Krakow, Torun, and Warsaw. His books include Selected Poems, Mr Cogito, Report from the Besieged City and Other Poems, Barbarian in the Garden, Still Life with a Bridle, The King of the Ants, and Reconstruction of the Poet. A passionate traveler, in the years of Solidarity he also became a central authority of the political opposition to communism in Poland. He died in 1998.