Sienkiewicz, Henryk

Related Category: Russian and Eastern European Literature: Biographies

(hĕn´rĭk shĕnkyĕ´vēch), 1846–1916, Polish novelist and short-story writer. The best-known of Sienkiewicz's vivid historical novels is Quo Vadis? (1896, tr. 1896), concerning Christianity in the time of Nero. He glorified the Polish struggle for national existence in the popular trilogy With Fire and Sword (1883, tr. 1890), The Deluge (1886, tr. 1891), and Pan Michael (1887–88, tr. 1893). Yanko the Musician (1879, tr. 1893) is a collection of his short stories. He described his journey through the United States in a collection of letters, Portrait of America (tr. 1959). Sienkiewicz was awarded the 1905 Nobel Prize in Literature. His works brought him enormous international acclaim.

See biography by M. Giergielewicz (1968); study by W. Lednicki (1960).