Sienkiewicz, Henryk

Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz was a Polish author born in Wola Okrzejska in Poland, then controlled by Russia. His family, especially on his father’s side, was involved in the struggle for Polish independence, and his father participated in the revolutions of 1831 and 1863. Sienkiewicz came from an impoverished aristocratic family who was forced to sell their country estate and move to Warsaw where Sienkiewicz attended school. He read law, medicine and philology between 1866 and 1870 without graduating. He published his first work in a magazine while he was still at university.