Adam Mickiewicz

Born December 24, 1798, Adam Mickiewicz is regarded as the national poet of Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus. He was born in modern-day Belarus during the time of partitions and his family belonged to the Polish nobility, szlachta. While initially educated by his mother and private tutors, he later attended a Dominican school and later enrolled at the Imperial University of Vilnius. During university, Mickiewicz and his friends created a secret organization, the Philomaths, which had ties to pro-Polish independence groups such as the Filaret Association. Mickiewicz was arrested in 1823 and was banished to central Russia, where he was in exile from 1824 to 1829. Despite his political status, Mickiewicz participated in the leading literary circles of St. Petersburg and Moscow. In Moscow, he met Maria Szymanowska and her daughter (his future wife), Alexander Pushkin, and leaders of the Decembrist uprising. 

After obtaining a passport and permission to travel, Mickiewicz traveled to Weimar, Berlin, and Prague. He later returned to Weimar and continued through Germany into Italy and Switzerland. During this time, Mickiewicz met such figures as Goethe, Antoni Odyniec, and Zygmunt Krasiński. In October 1830, Mickiewicz settled in Rome and remained there until the spring of 1831 due to the November 1830 Uprising in Poland. Mickiewicz eventually took lecturing positions at the Lausanne Academy and Collège de France and during this time he became increasingly interested in religious mysticism under the influence of Andrzej Towiański and Krzywióra Dahlschödstein, ultimately resulting in him being censured by the French government. In the final years of his life, Mickiewicz founded a French-language newspaper, for which he contributed over seventy articles. He was a strong proponent of democracy, socialism, and many ideals of the French revolution. In September 1855, Mickiewicz traveled to the Ottoman Empire, where he worked with Michał Czajkowski to organize Polish forces to fight against Russia. During his sojourn in Constantinople, Mickiewicz fell ill and died. Most scholars believe Mickiewicz contracted cholera. His remains were transported to France and were later disinterred in 1890 and entombed in the crypts of Wawel Cathedral in Kraków.

Mickiewicz’s literary works were largely influenced by Belarusian folklore, the classical style of Voltaire, and Polish Romanticism. His writings popularized the use of folklore and folk literary forms in Polish literature. He wrote such seminal works as Dziady (Forefather’s Eve), Pan Tadeusz (a national epic poem), Konrad Wallenrod, and Grażyna. Mickiewicz was also a translator, and translated the works of prominent writers such as Pushkin and Goethe into Polish.

Works included in our catalog include: “Świtezianka,” “Znasz-li ten kraj,” and “Piosnka dudarza”