Sienkiewicz Society, 501C (applied)

Dedicated to the Study of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth 

               of the 17 th C, 

and other aspects of culture described or experienced by Nobel Prize Winning Author, 

Henryk Sienkiewicz 

b.1846 d.1916

Branches of the society include: 

Trilogy Project

            Disseminating the books and films free to schools and libraries

Sienkiewicz/Hoffman Film Festival Project

                Arranging showings of Fire & Sword, Deluge, and Colonel Wolodyjowski

Living History Project, including

            Events for Polish, Ukrainian, and Lithuanian festivals, battle reenactments, and the  

             School of Musketeer, 

Sienkiewicz Scholar

            A biannual award to recognize outstanding contributions.  Includes a modest cash grant. 

                * 2006 Ms. Kass McCann

                * 2008 Mr. Radek Sikora

You can help the Society! 

            For information, contact   som at kismeta dot com  (format as x@y.com)

Henryk Sienkiewicz was the most important Polish writer of the late 1800s. He was born in the part of Poland under the Russian administration. His father was a Polish patriot dedicated to the revival of the Polish state; his mother was a historian, and the two factors were to be decisive in his writing.

Sienkiewicz traveled to America in 1876 and some of his images of the west can be found in his novels, The great trilogy about Poland in the mid-17th century, transmuted into the Steppe.   Ogniem i mieczem [With Fire and Sword], Potop [The Deluge] and Pan Wolodyjowski [aka Fire in the Steppe or Pan Michael] were set in 1648, 1654-55, and 1662 respectively.  Na polu chwaly ( 1906) [On the Field of Glory] is a sequel set in 1683.   Sienkiewicz's most successful novel in the American market, Quo Vadis, told the story of Christian martyrs  of the Roman Empire. Krzyzacy (1900) described the victory of the Poles over the Teutonic Knights.

We recommend the Trilogy volumes translated by Kuniczak, W. S., rather than those by Curtin, J. although each has its merits. 

We also highly recommend the Jerzy Hoffman films based on the Trilogy,

Some other Sienkiewicz links:

http://www.intelligentsianetwork.com/sienkiewicz/sienkiewicz.htm

http://www.nobel.se/literature/laureates/1905/

http://almaz.com/nobel/literature/1905a.html

http://library.thinkquest.org/11959/sienkiew/00sienk.htm?tqskip=1&tqskip1=1&tqtime=0910