This biography places Polgar's work in the context of his time and also reveals the man behind his armor of wit and irony, whose life journey took him from Vienna around 1900 through the 'great time' of World War I, the conflict-ridden years of Austria after 1918, the splendor and misery in Berlin during the declining Weimar Republic, through the bitter years of emigration, until his death in exile in Zurich. This biography is so light and lucid, so in the spirit of the master, that it feels as if he had written it 'himself.' Weinzierl's meticulous tracing of this 'quiet' life leaves nothing out.