Boleslaw Przybyszewski was born in Prussian Berlin on 22 February 1892; he was an illegitimate son of the Polish writer Stanisław Przybyszewski. His mother Marfa Ferder committed suicide on 9 June 1896. The boy was taken to his father's parents in Kuyavia, then a part of the Russian Empire. Later they moved to Wągrowiec. Due to his grandmother's influence, young Boleslaw developed a keen interest in music. In 1912 he moved to Warsaw and entered the Chopin University of Music. During World War I he was interned and forcibly moved to Orsk. On 14 October 1918, he married Emilia Nidekker, a daughter of the former city mayor and lieutenant colonel in reserve of the Imperial Army. In August 1919, when the Cossacks retreated and left the city, Przybyszewski stayed in Orsk and took an active part in public and cultural life. In January 1920 he published an open letter in the local press, where he openly criticized "all vulgar and crude attacks" on his father.