Henryk Sienkiewicz

Early life Sienkiewicz came into the world on 5 May 1846 in Wola Okrzejska, Lublin Governorate, now a village in the central part of the eastern Polish region of Lubelskie in the Kingdom of Poland, then part of the Russian Empire. More cautiously, he called on Russia's government to introduce reforms in Russian-controlled Congress Poland. During the Revolution in the Kingdom of Poland, he advocated broader Polish autonomy within the Russian Empire. , 1905 Sienkiewicz maintained some ties with Polish right-wing National Democracy politicians and was critical of the socialists, but he was generally a moderate and declined to become a politician and a deputy to the Russian Duma. In the cultural sphere, he was involved in the creation of the Kraków and Warsaw monuments to Adam Mickiewicz. He supported educational endeavors and co-founded the Polska Macierz Szkolna organization. "Reasonably wealthy" by 1908 thanks to sales of his books, he often used his new wealth to support struggling writers. He helped gather funds for social-welfare projects such as starvation relief, and for construction of a tuberculosis sanatorium at Zakopane. He was as prominent in philanthropy as in literature. In February 1895 he wrote the first chapters of Quo Vadis. The novel was serialized beginning in March 1895 in Warsaw's Polish Gazette, Kraków's Czas (Time), and Poznań's Dziennik Poznański (Poznań Daily). The novel was finished by March 1896. The book edition appeared later the same year and soon gained international renown. In February 1897 he began serializing a new novel, Krzyżacy (The Teutonic Knights, or The Knights of the Cross); serialization finished in 1900, and the book edition appeared that year. In 1900, with a three-year delay due to the approaching centenary of Mickiewicz's birth, Sienkiewicz celebrated his own quarter-century, begun in 1872, as a writer. Special events were held in a number of Polish cities, including Kraków, Lwów, and Poznań. A jubilee committee presented him with a gift from the Polish people: an estate at Oblęgorek, near Kielce, where he later opened a school for children. In 1905 he won the Nobel Prize for his lifetime achievements as an epic writer. In his acceptance speech, he said this honor was of particular value to a son of Poland: "She was pronounced dead – yet here is proof that she lives on.... She was pronounced defeated – and here is proof that she is victorious." His social and political activities resulted in a diminished literary output. He wrote a new historical novel, Na polu chwały (On the Field of Glory), that was meant as the beginning of a new trilogy; it was, however, criticized as being a lesser version of his original Trilogy and was discontinued. Similarly, his contemporary novel (Whirlpools), 1910, which criticized some of Sienkiewicz's political opponents, received a mostly polemical and politicized response. His 1910 novel for young people, W pustyni i w puszczy (In Desert and Wilderness), serialized in (The Warsaw Courier), finishing in 1911, was much better received and became widely popular among children and young adults. After the outbreak of World War I, Sienkiewicz was visited at Oblęgorek by a Polish Legions cavalry unit under Bolesław Wieniawa-Długoszowski. Soon after, he left for Switzerland. Together with Ignacy Paderewski and Erazm Piltz, he established an organization for Polish war relief. He also supported the work of the Red Cross. Otherwise he eschewed politics though shortly before his death he endorsed the Act of 5th November 1916, a declaration by Emperors Wilhelm II of Germany and Franz Joseph of Austria and king of Hungary, pledging the creation of a Kingdom of Poland envisioned as a puppet state allied with, and controlled by, the Central Powers. Death Sienkiewicz died on 15 November 1916 at the Grand Hotel du Lac in Vevey, Switzerland where he was buried on 22 November. The cause of death was ischemic heart disease. His funeral was attended by representatives of both the Central Powers and the Entente, and an address by Pope Benedict XV was read. In 1924, after Poland had regained her independence, Sienkiewicz's remains were repatriated to Warsaw, Poland, and placed in the crypt of St. John's Cathedral. During the coffin's transit, solemn memorial ceremonies were held in a number of cities. Thousands accompanied the coffin to its Warsaw resting place, and Poland's President Stanisław Wojciechowski delivered a eulogy. == Works ==