The year was 1905, when Henryk Sienkiewicz permanently etched his name in the annals of Polish literature. This was the year when the author of the novel series Trylogia (Trilogy, released in 1884-1888), and such works as Quo Vadis (1895) and the Krzyżacy (Teutonic Knights 1900), was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature for outstanding achievements in the field of epic writing and being a rare genius who himself personifies the spirit of the nation.

Sienkiewicz's beginnings, however, were modest. He was born in 1846 in Podlasie in Wola Okrzejska in an impoverished gentry family. At the age of 9, he went to Warsaw, and soon after as a young man he started his education in the Warsaw School of Economics and the University of Warsaw.

Young Henryk tried his hand at medical and legal studies, but eventually put his money on literature. He made his debut in 1869 as a writer in Przegląd Tygodniowy (The Weekly Review). It was the beginning of his long journalistic career. Reviews, short stories and excerpts from Sienkiewicz's novels were published in magazines such as Tygodnik Ilustrowany (The Weekly Illustrated) or Niwa. A series of texts called of Humoreski z teki Worszyłły (Funny stories from Worszyłła portfolia 1872), in which Sienkiewicz described with a grain of salt the reality that surrounded him, proved to be particularly popular.

In the years 1876-1878 Henryk began working as a correspondent for Polish newspapers in the United States, and based on this work a series of columns entitled List z podróży do Ameryki (Letter from a trip to America) was created. His American adventure began a series of his many expeditions abroad. In subsequent years, Sienkiewicz visited, among others, Paris and London in 1890. He went on a safari to Zanzibar, which was the inspiration to write another famous book - W pustyni i w puszczy (In Desert and Wilderness 1912).

Sienkiewicz's life work was the Trilogy, a series of three novels - Ogniem i mieczem (With Fire and Sword), Potop (The Deluge) and Pan Wołodyjowski (Fire in the Steppe), in which he describes the fate of the First Polish Republic in the seventeenth century. The books appeared as episodes in the pages of many magazines in Kraków and Warsaw. Written to uplift hearts, they aroused patriotic spirit among their readers (Poland was under occupation at that time and did not formally exist), significantly contributed to Sienkiewicz's considerable popularity.

After the outbreak of World War I, the writer went to Switzerland where he died in the autumn of 1916. In 1924, the Nobel Prize winner's ashes were solemnly brought to the Poland and buried in the basement of the Saint John's Cathedral in Warsaw.

Do you know?

• Henryk Sienkiewicz wrote under a literary pen name Litwos. The name alluded to writer's Lithuanian lineage.
• Sienkiewicz was the undisputed celebrity of his time. His style of dress and his distinctive beard were emulated by many of his male contemporaries.
• In his love life, Sienkiewicz met women named Maria five times. Three of them became his wives. This was described in a book by Barbara Wachowicz, which told this an other interesting stories of the author's life, entitled Marie jego życia (Maries of his life).
• Sienkiewicz was renowned for his community work. On his initiative, a fund to support young artists and a sanatorium for children with tuberculosis were established. In addition, the writer belonged to the Committee to Aid War Victims in Poland; he was the president of the Warsaw Providence Fund for Writers and Journalists and a member of the Warsaw Rowing Society - the oldest sports association on Polish soil.
• Many of the works of Sienkiewicz lived to see their cinema versions - in Poland and abroad. These include Trylogia, Quo Vadis and W Pustyni i w puszczy.