Henryk Sienkiewicz

Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz was a Polish journalist, novelist and the Nobel Prize laureate. He is best remembered for his historical novels, especially for his internationally known bestseller Quo Vadis .

Sienkiewicz was born onMay 1846 in Wola Okrzejska, a village in the eastern Polish region of Podlasie, then part of the Russian Empire. His family were impoverished Polish nobles, on his fathers side deriving from Tatars who had settled in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. His parents were Jzef Sienkiewicz and Stefania, ne Cieciszowska . He had five siblings an older brother, Kazimierz , and four sisters, Aniela, Helena, Zofia and Maria. His family were entitled to use the Polish Oszyk coat of arms. Wola Okrzejska belonged to the writers maternal grandmother, Felicjana Cieciszowska. His family moved several times, and young Henryk spent his childhood on family estates in Grabowce Grne, Wyczyn and Burzec. In September 1858 he began his education in Warsaw, where the family would finally settle in 1861, having bought a tenement house in eastern Warsaws Praga district. He received relatively poor school grades except in the humanities, notably Polish language and history.

Source: Wikipedia