---

portrait by: Gabriela Paciorek

Henryk Sienkiewicz -- pseudonym "Litwos" -- (1846-1916) -- short story writer and novelist

He was born into an impoverished noble family. His father, at first, rented various manor lands, then settled in Warsaw where he purchased an apartment house. He finished high school in Warsaw and ten attended the Main School in the years 1866-1869 where he studied in the law and philology-history. Later he studied at the Russian administrated University of Warsaw which he left in 1871 without attending final exams. His parents refused him permission to participate in the January 1863 Uprising, since his older brother (who would later die in the Franco-Prussian War) had already gone to fight.

During 1872-1887 Sienkiewicz worked as a journalist and reporter for the Warsaw press. In the period 1874-1878 he was the co-owner of the bi weekly Niwa. During the years 1882-1887 he was the editor of Slowo (a conservative daily). In 1876 he was sent by Gazeta Polska as a correspondent to North America where he stayed until 1878. He left with a group of friends that included the actress Helena Modrzejewska (Modjeska) and joined their attempt to start a communal farm in Anaheim, California. In 1879 he travelled through France and Italy. From 1880 he was travelling constantly. Every year he made trips abroad so that his wife, Maria nee Szetkiewicz, could get treatment for tuberculosis. After her death in 1885 he frequented spas in Austria, Italy and France. In 1886 he went to Constantinopole, Athens, Naples and Rome. In 1888 he visited Spain, and in 1890 joined a hunting expedition to Zanzibar.

He was a tireless traveller and wrote continuously, producing novels, short stories, commentaries, letters all of which appeared in the press of Krakow, Warsaw, Poznan, and Lwow. The work brought him fame. In 1900, on the 25th anniversary of his writing debut, a grateful nation presented him with Oblegorek, a small estate. In 1905 he received the Nobel Prize for literature for Quo Vadis. After the outbreak of World War I he went to Switzerland where in Vevey, with Ignacy Jan Paderewski and A. Osuchowski, he organized the General Committee to help the victims of War in Poland. The committee sent medicines, clothing, and money to Poland. Sienkiewicz joined in other social relief efforts, among which was the creation of a tuberculosis treatment center for children in Bystrem. A scholarship fund he started in 1889 helped Stanislaw Wyspianski, Stanislaw Przybyszewski and K. Przerwa Tetmayer, and others. He was among the organizers of the Mianowski Fund and others.

His private life was unusual for those times full of travel and meetings with interesting people. Testimony to his wide interests is given by his extensive travel reports: Letters from America and Letters from Africa. In his writings he addressed the real problems of positivism, the poverty of the villages and the oppression in schools operated under the occupation government. In his cycle of short stories written about America he illustrated the life in that young and resilient nation. The over 40 major works show his mastery of the Polish language, human psychology and the writer's craft. Sienkiewicz was instrumental in the flowering of the historical novel at the end of the nineteenth century, He was a writer with a historical temperament. His modern novels Without Dogma (Bez Dogmatu) and The Polaniecki Family (Rodzina Polanieckich) were not successful. But his historical novels brought him worldwide fame. His greatest success was Quo Vadis, a great panoramic portrayal of Nero's Rome. The first part of his Trilogy - With Fire and Sword (Ogniem i Mieczem) raised him to the level of the greatest Polish prose writers. Though the literary and academic circles criticized the Trilogy author, accusing him of a supposed lack of understanding for human psychology, and that the novel did not present an accurate historical picture of historical events. Despite this the Trilogy instantly became the most popular novel in Poland and quickly gained admirers overseas. The Trilogy was written chiefly to "raise the morale" of his countrymen. It taught patriotism and faith in individual heroism. The crowning success of his work was the novel The Teutonic Knights (Krzyzacy). The epic nature of the story, its well organized action sequences and the presentation of a growing national awareness testify to the great artistic and imaginative values of the novel. A great favorite among the youth was his novel of Africa In Desert and Wilderness (W Pustyni i w Puszczy). According to J. Krzyzanowski Sienkiewicz is among the most popular of the world's writers. Evidence of this is presented in bibliographic indexes which show that Sienkiewicz's works are continually reprinted or appear in new translations. This is because he was a writer who propagated humanistic views in great literary epics.

Among his works are:

Letters from America (1876-1878)
Letters from Africa (1891-1892)
On Naturalism in the Novel (1880) literary critique
On the Historical Novel (1889) literary critique
Letters about Zola (1893) a study

Short Stories:
Humor from Worszala's Portfolio (1872)
Hania (1880)
Charcoal Sketches (1880)
Bartek the Victor (1882)
After Bread (1880)
Janko the Musician (1880)
Jamiol (1882)
Orso (1880)
Across the Steppes (1880)
Sachem (1889)
The Lighthouse Keeper (Latarnik) 1882
A Reminiscence from Mariposa (Wspomnienie z Maripozy) 1889
The Third One (Ta Trzecia) 1889
Sabalowa Bajka 1889

Novels:
For Naught (Na Marne) 1872

Trilogy -
- With Fire and Sword (Ogniem i Mieczem) 1883-1884
- The Deluge (Potop) 1886
- Master Wolodyjowski (Pan Wolodyjowski) 1888

Without Dogma (Bez Dogmatu) 1891
The Polaniecki Family (Rodzina Polanieckich) 1895
Quo Vadis (1896)
The Teutonic Knights (Krzyzacy) 1900
On the Field of Glory (Na Polu Chwaly) 1903-1904
Whirlpools (Wiry) 1910
In Desert and Wildernes (W Pustyni i w Puszczy) 1911

From: Resume

Additional article "Henryk Sienkiewicz, a Nobel Prize Winner"

---