Portal:Poland/Selected biography/34
Adam Mickiewicz (1798–1855) was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist and translator. A principal figure of Polish Romanticism, he is counted one of Poland's "Three Bards" and widely regarded as Poland's greatest poet. Born in the Russian territories of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania, he was sentenced to a five-year exile to central Russia for his political activism. He left Russia in 1829 and, like many of his compatriots, lived out the rest of his life abroad. He settled first in Rome, then in Paris, where for a little over three years he lectured on Slavic literature at Collège de France. Mickiewicz died, probably of cholera, in Istanbul, where he had gone to help organize Polish and Jewish forces to fight Russia in the Crimean War. He is known chiefly for the poetic drama Dziady ("Forefathers' Eve") and the national epic poem Pan Tadeusz. His other influential works include Konrad Wallenrod and Grażyna. (Full article...)