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:
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
Major events in 2003, the
Siege of Czestochova, 1655, Doylestown PA, Aug 30-31 2003 and
the School of Musketeer, May 3 , 2003.
You can help the Society!
For information, contact Sienkiewicz@kismeta.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,
The books and films and a limited selection of relevant and often hard-to-find histories are for sale at our on-line bookshop. Proceeds help us fulfill our educational mission.
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