Wacław Sieroszewski, Ol-Soni Kisań. Novel [1906]

Title: Ol-Soni Kisań. A Novel.

Author: Wacław Sieroszewski (1858–1945) [writer, ethnographer, and traveler; exiled to Siberia; president of the Polish Academy of Literature]

Publisher: Warsaw, Gebethner and Wolff.

Year of publication: 1906.

Format: 18 cm.

Number of pages: 247.

Binding: period half-leather.

“Ol-Soni Kisań. A Novel,” published in 1906, is part of Wacław Sieroszewski’s literary oeuvre related to his travels in East Asia. The author visited Korea in 1903 while returning from a trip to Japan, and he drew on his experiences traveling through China, Manchuria, Korea, and the Japanese islands in works set against the backdrop of old Korea. Through the fates of its fictional characters, the novel depicts the social and political transformations in Korea at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and scholars have also identified Buddhist themes within it. Sieroszewski’s interest in Korea also had a political dimension: his views at the time regarding the Japanese presence on the Peninsula have become the subject of separate scholarly studies. It was published by the Warsaw-based firm Gebethner & Wolff, one of the largest publishing houses in the Kingdom of Poland.

Wacław Sieroszewski was born in 1858 near Warsaw as Wacław Sirko. Arrested in 1878 for anti-tsarist activities, he was exiled to Siberia, first to Verkhoyansk, and after a failed escape attempt, to Yakutia, returning to Warsaw in 1898. His experiences in Siberia and his ethnographic research among the Yakuts formed the basis of his scholarly works and literary writings. From 1903 to 1914, he traveled through Japan, China, and Korea. During the period of independence, he was a legionnaire and a close associate of Józef Piłsudski; from 1927 to 1930, he served as president of the Polish Writers’ Union, and from 1933 to 1938, as president of the Polish Academy of Literature; from 1935 to 1938, he served in the Senate of the Republic of Poland. His “Writings” spanned twenty-five volumes (1931–1935). He died on April 20, 1945, in Piaseczno and was buried at Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw.

Provenance: on the first page, notes regarding duplicates and inventory numbers; on the back endpaper, a sticker reading “Gift from the Polish Library—Paris”; the exact circumstances and date of the donation remain unknown.

An item of interest to collectors of Young Poland literature, Oriental and Siberian literature, and researchers of the history of Polish ethnography.

The block is intact. The paper has small spots and stains; otherwise, the pages are clean (except for the notes and numbers described in the provenance section). The original period half-leather binding is in good condition, with slight wear on the spine.

Catalog ID: 13504-18-A-Z