Henryk (Adam Alexander Pius) Sienkiewicz - Life, Chief novels:, Note

Novelist, born in Wola Okrzejska, E Poland. He studied at Warsaw, travelled in the USA, and in the 1870s began to write articles, short stories, and novels. His major work was a war trilogy about 17th-c Poland, beginning with Ogniem i mieczem (1884, With Fire and Sword), but his most widely known book is the story of Rome under Nero, Quo Vadis? (1896), several times filmed, notably in 1951 by Mervyn Le Roy (1900–87). He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1905.

For Senkevich, see Yuri Senkevich.

Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Oszyk-Sienkiewicz (IPA: [ˈxɛnrɨk ɕenˈkieviʧ] listen) (May 5, 1846 - November 15, 1916, Vevey, Switzerland) was a Nobel Prize-winning Polish novelist.

Life

Born into a wealthy family in Wola Okrzejska, in Russian-ruled Poland, Sienkiewicz wrote historical novels set during the Rzeczpospolita (Polish Republic, or Commonwealth).

Many of his novels were first serialized in newspapers, and even today are still in print. In Poland, he is best known for his historical novels (The Trilogy) set during the 17th-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and elsewhere he is known for Quo Vadis, set in Nero's Rome.

Sienkiewicz had a way with language.

Quo Vadis has been filmed several times, most notably the 1951 version.

He won the 1905 Nobel Prize in literature "because of his outstanding merits as an epic writer."1

Generations later, Alexander Victor Sienkiewicz (one of the few relatives of Henryk Sienkiewicz), has begun to heavily promote Henryk’s work in the United States, a land where he is not widely known.

Chief novels:

The Trilogy (Trylogia), comprising: With Fire and Sword (Ogniem i mieczem, 1884), which took place during the 17th century Cossack revolt known as the Chmielnicki Uprising; The Teutonic Knights, also translated as The Knights of the Cross, ISBN 0-7818-0433-7 (Krzyżacy, 1900, relating to the Battle of Grunwald);

Note

Many commentators erroneously state that Sienkiewicz received the Nobel Prize for Quo vadis. Sources: NobelPrize.org and "Za co Sienkiewicz dostał Nobla" (a Polish newspaper article). and Sienkiewicza Municipal Park in Wrocław, are all named after Henryk Sienkiewicz. All of the places in the Ukraine that were formerly named after Sienkiewicz, during the 1920s, were renamed in 1946.