Poland's Noble laureate in literature born 171 yrs ago
May 5 marks the 171st birth anniversary of Polish historical novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz, best-known for his Trilogy depicting the political turmoils of 17th-century Poland, and the Nobel-winning "Quo Vadis" set in Rome during the early Christian era.
Sienkiewicz was born on 5 May 1846 in Wola Okrzejska, a village now in the eastern-Polish Lubelskie province and then part of the Russian Empire. His family were impoverished Polish nobles, on his father's side deriving from Tartars settled in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
At 19 Sienkiewicz took a job as tutor to a family in Plonsk and probably then penned his first novel, Ofiara (Sacrifice), whose manuscript he is thought to have destroyed. In that period he also worked on his first published novel Na marne (In Vain, 1872).
In Vain was followed by Humoreski z teki Woroszylly (Humorous Sketches from Woroszylla's Files, 1872), Stary Sluga (The Old Servant, 1875), Hania (1876) and Selim Mirza (1877), the last three known as the "Little Trilogy". The publications made him a popular figure in Warsaw's journalistic-literary milieu and a welcome guest at popular dinner parties hosted by the renowned Polish actress Helena Modrzejewska.
In 1876 Sienkiewicz went to the United States with Helena Modrzejewska (who soon won fame in the US as Helena Modjeska), travelling first to New York and then San Francisco, and remaining for some time in California. His travel costs were covered by Gazeta Polska (The Polish Gazette), for which he wrote a series of travel essays - Listy z podrozy (Letters from a Journey) and Listy Litwosa z Podrozy (Litwos' Letters from a Journey), which ran in The Polish Gazette in 1876–78 and came out as a book in 1880.
In America he continued writing fiction, publishing Szkice weglem (Charcoal Sketches) in The Polish Gazette in 1877. He also wrote a play, Na jedna karte (On a Single Card), staged at Lviv in 1879 and Warsaw in 1881. A play he wrote for Modjeska, Z walki tutejszych partii (Partisan Struggles), was never performed or published and the manuscript is probably lost.
Sienkiewicz returned to Poland in 1879, lecturing on his US travels in Lviv, Szczawnica, Krynica, Poznan and Warsaw. In the same year he toured Venice and Rome, returning to Warsaw in November of that year. Soon afterwards he met Maria Szetkiewicz, whom he married on 18 August 1881. The marriage produced two children, Henryk Jozef (1882–1959) and Jadwiga Maria (1883–1969). Maria died of tuberculosis on August 18, 1885.
From 1883 Sienkiewicz focused on historical novels rather than short pieces, beginning work on Ogniem i Mieczem (With Fire and Sword), the first volume of his famous Trilogy. With Fire and Sword ran in installments in The Word between May 1883 and March 1884, and simultaneously in the Krakow-based newspaper Czas (Time).
The second Trilogy volume, Potop (The Deluge), ran in The Word from December 1884 to September 1886. The year 1887 saw the publication of Pan Wolodyjowski (Sir Michael), the third part of the Trilogy, in The Word (May 1887 - May 1888). The Trilogy established Sienkiewicz as the most popular Polish writer of his era.
In 1905 Sienkiewicz was awarded a Nobel Prize for his lifetime achievements in literature. It is often incorrectly maintained that the distinction was awarded for his 1896 novel Quo Vadis, which won him international renown. In fact, no particular novel was named, the Nobel committee citing his "outstanding merits as an epic writer".
Sienkiewicz died of ischemic heart disease on November 15, 1916 at the Grand Hotel du Lac in Vevey, Switzerland, where he was buried on November 22. His funeral was attended by reps of the Central Powers and the Entente. Pope Benedict XV sent an address to be read out. In 1924 Sienkiewicz's remains were repatriated to Warsaw and placed in the crypt of St. John's Cathedral.(PAP)
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