SIENKIEWICZ (Syen-kye'vich), HENRYK (1846-1916), Polish novelist, was born at Wola Okrzejska near Lukow, in Siedlce, Russian Poland. He studied philosophy at Warsaw uni versity. His first work, a humorous novel entitled A Prophet in his own Countty, appeared in 1872. In 1876 Sienkiewicz visited America, and contributed an account of his travels to the Gazeta Polska. His best-known romance, Quo Vadis?, a study of Roman society under Nero, has been translated into more than 3o lan guages. Originally published in 1895, Quo Vadis? was first trans lated into English in 1896, and dramatized and film versions of it have been produced in many countries. Of greater literary merit is the trilogy of novels describing 17th-century society in Poland during the wars with the Cossacks, Turks and Swedes. This trilogy comprises Ogniem i mieczern ("With Fire and Sword," 1890, 1892 and 1895), Potop ("The Deluge," Boston, Mass., 1891) and Pan Wotodyjowski ("Pan Michael," 1893). Among other very successful novels and collections of tales which have been trans lated into English are Bez Dogmatu ("Without Dogma," 1893; Toronto, 1899), Janko muzykant: nowele ("Yanko the Musician and other stories," Boston, Mass., 1893), Krzyiacy ("The Knights
of the Cross," numerous British and American versions), Hania, ("Hania," 1897) and Ta Trzecia ("The Third Woman," 1898). Sienkiewicz lived much in Cracow and Warsaw, and for a time edited the Warsaw newspaper Slowo; he also travelled in Eng land, France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Africa and the East, and pub lished a description of his journeys in Africa. In 19o5 he received the Nobel prize for literature. During the early years of the World War, he devoted his energies to the organization of relief for its Polish victims. He died in Switzerland in 1916 while engaged on that task. His body was transferred to Cracow in For a bibliography of the English translations of Sienkiewicz's writ ings, see W. L. Phelps, Essays on Modern Novelists (1910). See also Monica M. Gardner, The Patriot Novelist of Poland: Henryk Sien kiewicz (1926).