Apollo Korzeniowski

Infobox Writer
name = Apollo Korzeniowski


imagesize = 266px
caption = Apollo Korzeniowski
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birthdate = birth date|1820|02|21|mf=y
birthplace = Honoratka, Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine)
deathdate = death date and age|1869|05|23|1820|02|21
deathplace = Kraków, Austria-Hungary (present-day Poland)
occupation = Poet, playwright, clandestine political activist
nationality = Polish
period =
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subject =
movement =
spouse =
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children =
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website =

Apollo Korzeniowski (February 21, 1820 – May 23, 1869) was a Polish poet, playwright, clandestine political activist, and father of Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad.

Life

Apollo Korzeniowski was born on February 21, 1820, in the Imperial Russian village of Honoratka, then in Jampol County in what is now Ukraine. He was the son of Teodor Korzeniowski, an 1831 Polish Army captain, an impoverished nobleman who made a living running leaseholds, and Julia "née" Dyakiewicz.

After graduating from secondary school in Żytomierz, Apollo studied law and Oriental studies at the University of St. Petersburg, then returned to Ukraine, where in 1852 he became an estate manager in the Podole village of Łuczyniec.

In 1854, during the Crimean War, Apollo took an active part in preparations to organize in Ukraine—in the rears of the Russian armies fighting in Crimea—a Polish uprising. It came to nought due to British and French reluctance to get involved in the Polish cause. [Citation | last=Taborski | first=Roman | author-link= | chapter=Korzeniowski, Apollo | date= | year= | title=Polski słownik biograficzny | page=167 ]

In April 1856, Apollo married Ewelina [In English, "Eveline."] Bobrowska, sister of Tadeusz Bobrowski [Later the guardian and mentor of Joseph Conrad.] and Stefan Bobrowski. [Who would be a leading "Red" activist during the January 1863 Uprising.] Together with his mother-in-law, Apollo leased the village of Derebczynka. On December 3, 1857, the Korzeniowskis welcomed into the world their only child, Konrad, the future English-language novelist Joseph Conrad.

In early 1859, after losing all their fortune on the leasehold, the Korzeniowskis moved permanently to Żytomierz, where Apollo for a time served as secretary of a bookselling and publishing association and became a member of the board of directors of a Polish theater.

It was Korzeniowski's years at Łuczyniec, Derebczynka and Żytomierz that saw the greatest flowering of his literary creativity. His first substantial work was a manuscript cycle of religious-patriotic poems, "Purgatorial Songs" ("Czyśćcowe pieśni", 1849–54), which came into being under the clear—and none too fortunate [Citation | last=Taborski | first=Roman | author-link= | chapter=Korzeniowski, Apollo | date= | year= | title=Polski słownik biograficzny | page=167 ] —influence of Zygmunt Krasiński's poetry. Apollo overcame this influence only in the final poem of the cycle, "Forethunder" ("Przedgrom"), into which his earlier preparations for the unrealized uprising introduced revolutionary accents. These accents also appeared in a manuscript cycle of poems written in 1855 at the news of the Tsarist Army's bloody suppression of a peasant revolt in Skvira County. [Citation | last=Taborski | first=Roman | author-link= | chapter=Korzeniowski, Apollo | date= | year= | title=Polski słownik biograficzny | page=167 ]

In 1854 Korzeniowski wrote his "chef d'oeuvre", the drama "Komedia" ("Comedy"), its beginning parts modeled after Aleksandr Griboyedov's comedy, "Gorie ot uma" ("Woe from Wit"). [Roman Taborski, "Korzeniowski, Apollo," p. 167.] In "Comedy", Korzeniowski severely criticized the Polish nobility in Ukraine and opposed it to two positive heroes—Henryk, [In English, "Henry."] a revolutionary-conspirator, and the Secretary, a cowed plebeian who, as the action develops, rebels against his employer. The play's 1855 publication (together with a lyric cycle, "Stray Strophes"—"Strofy oderwane") became a social scandal. Little wonder that "Comedy", severely treated by the critics, could not get onto the stage. [Citation | last=Taborski | first=Roman | author-link= | chapter=Korzeniowski, Apollo | date= | year= | title=Polski słownik biograficzny | page=167 ]

In 1858 Korzeniowski published a second drama, "For a Pretty Penny" ("Dla miłego grosza"), which was to some extent a continuation of "Comedy". The new play likewise contained criticism of the wealthy Polish nobility in Ukraine, which was passing over to new, capitalist methods of management; this time, however, the criticized milieu was contrasted only with an old nobleman-conservative who desperately clung to the feudal system.

Apart from original work, Korzeniowski did translations, including Alfred de Vigny's 1835 drama "Chatterton" and several works by Victor Hugo: "Hernani", "Marion Delorme" and fragments of "La Légende des siècles". He also wrote much correspondence to the Warsaw newspapers.

At the turn of the 1850s and 1860s, Korzeniowski once again engaged in socio-political activity. Thus, in April 1861 he took part, at Żytomierz, in deliberations by delegates of the nobility from the three "guberniyas" comprising Rus Province—deliberations whose aim was the creation, with the help of the "guberniya" Agricultural Associations, of a common Polish organization for the Rus and Lithuanian provinces; Korzeniowski proposed then sending the Tsar a demand to join the two provinces administratively to the Congress Kingdom. [Citation | last=Taborski | first=Roman | author-link= | chapter=Korzeniowski, Apollo | date= | year= | title=Polski słownik biograficzny | page=168 ]

In May 1861, hearing of a patriotic movement developing in Warsaw, Korzeniowski traveled from Żytomierz to Warsaw. There he sought the right to publish a radical socio-literary "Biweekly" ("Dwutygodnik"). Initially he associated himself with K. Majewski, who would later name him in testimony as his deputy in a "triumvirate." Korzeniowski, however, distanced himself from Majewski due to the latter's contacts with the "Whites" and became close to more radical groups, especially to youth in the Academy of Fine Arts ("Akademia Sztuk Pięknych") and to the "Red" representative, Ignacy Chmieleński, [Citation | last=Taborski | first=Roman | author-link= | chapter=Korzeniowski, Apollo | date= | year= | title=Polski słownik biograficzny | page=168 ] who would become the chief of the National Government ("Rząd Narodowy") during the January 1863 Uprising.

Korzeniowski became a leading organizer of political demonstrations. He helped organize celebrations of the anniversary of the Union of Lublin, was an organizer of a demonstration connected with the funeral of Archbishop A. Fijałkowski, and was the chief initiator of celebrations of the anniversary of the Union of Horodło. He also worked to organize a boycott of municipal elections that were scheduled to begin in Warsaw on September 23, 1861.When this effort failed and martial law was declared in the Congress Kingdom, Korzeniowski was one of the chief initiators in forming (October 17, 1861) a Municipal Committee ("Komitet Miejski")—the supreme authority of the "Red" conspiracy. [Citation | last=Taborski | first=Roman | author-link= | chapter=Korzeniowski, Apollo | date= | year= | title=Polski słownik biograficzny | page=168 ]

On the night of October 20–21, 1861, Korzeniowski was arrested and placed in the infamous Tenth Pavilion of the Warsaw Citadel. In May 1862 he was sentenced by a court martial to exile in Vologda; a year later, this was commuted to Chernigov. [Citation | last=Taborski | first=Roman | author-link= | chapter=Korzeniowski, Apollo | date= | year= | title=Polski słownik biograficzny | page=168 ]

In exile, Korzeniowski resumed his literary work. He produced a memoir on "Poland and Moscow" ("Polska i Moskwa"," published in a periodical in 1864); a fragment of a play, "No Rescue" ("Bez ratunku"); and a "Study of Drama in the Works of Shakespeare" ("Studia nad dramatycznością w utworach Szekspira"). He also translated Charles Dickens' "Hard Times" and Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors". [Citation | last=Taborski | first=Roman | author-link= | chapter=Korzeniowski, Apollo | date= | year= | title=Polski słownik biograficzny | page=168 ]

At Chernigov, in 1865, Korzeniowski's wife Ewelina died of tuberculosis. In late 1867, Korzeniowski himself, on account of his poor health (tuberculosis and heart disease), was released from exile and allowed to leave Russia. In early 1868 he went with his son Konrad to Lviv, in Austrian-occupied Poland. A year later they moved to Kraków, likewise in Austrian Poland, where Apollo could work with the recently founded democratic daily, "Kraj" ("Homeland"). [Citation | last=Taborski | first=Roman | author-link= | chapter=Korzeniowski, Apollo | date= | year= | title=Polski słownik biograficzny | page=168 ]

On May 23, 1869, Korzeniowski died in Kraków. He was interred in the Rakowicki Cemetery. Over his grave stands a monument designed by sculptor Walery Gadomski. [Citation | last=Taborski | first=Roman | author-link= | chapter=Korzeniowski, Apollo | date= | year= | title=Polski słownik biograficzny | page=168 ]

Legacy

Apollo Korzeniowski was long remembered merely as the father of English-language novelist Joseph Conrad. It was only with the astonishing world premiere of Apollo's "Comedy" in Wrocław in 1952, nearly a century after it had been written in 1854, that attention was brought to Apollo Korzeniowski as an important literary personality and man of action in his own right. [Citation | last=Taborski | first=Roman | author-link= | chapter=Korzeniowski, Apollo | date= | year= | title=Polski słownik biograficzny | page=168 ]

ee also

*List of Polish-language poets
*List of playwrights by nationality and date of birth

Notes

References

* Citation
last=Taborski
first=Roman
author-link=
chapter=Korzeniowski, Apollo
date=
year=1968
title=Polski słownik biograficzny
volume=XIV
publisher=Polska Akademia Nauk
location=Wrocław
page=167-69
isbn=