The Importance of One Letter: Sienkiewicz as a Father in the Eyes of Karol Potkański

Abstract

The article was written on the basis of “scraps” left as a result of the study of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s draft papers. The author made a reconnaissance and determined how, in the light of the correspondence of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s first wife, Maria, writer’s own letters and Karol Potkański’s correspondence to Jadwiga Janczewska, we can describe the relationship of Sienkiewicz and his wife to their son and daughter. The letter of Karol Potkański, written to Jadwiga Janczewska in 1893, turned out to be crucial in this matter. In his letter, Karol Potkański, a historian, Henryk Sienkiewicz Junior’s guardian during his studies at the Kraków grammar school, presented Sienkiewicz as an insensitive and irresponsible father, who additionally favoured his daughter. The work contributes to wider research that allows to determine how stereotypes affect the perception of well-known literary and cultural figures of the second half of the 19th century and the process of their mythologisation.