PIET HEIN

Piet Hein (1905-1996) is one of the great Danes. He was a man of many talents with a background in a wealthy family, and in his youth, he was a student with Niels Bohr, the famous nuclear scientist and philosopher. He has invented many intriguing games as well as the super elliptical design, a mathematical crossing between an ellipse and a circle, often used for conference tables.

Piet Hein’s second claim to fame is a verbal kind of short poetry, in English named Grooks, with philosophical thoughts of the conditions of man. He introduced the first of these punchy poems in a Danish newspaper under the pen name Kumbel in 1940.

In 1943, he and his Jewish wife had to flee from the Nazis, and through Sweden, they came to Argentina. What could a multitalented person do there?

Piet Hein tested out a new formula, in contradiction to his poetry a pantomime strip, with which he did not have any success. He made twenty test strips, and you can see ten of them here. No big deal, but quite surprising to me, when I first saw them printed in a booklet a while ago.