Maria Konopnicka

Maria Konopnicka was a prominent Polish writer and activist who lived in the 19th and early 20th century. She was born in Suwałki, a town in northeastern Poland, to a lawyer father and a noble mother. She received a good education at home and at a convent school in Warsaw, where she befriended another future writer, Eliza Orzeszkowa. In 1862, she married Jarosław Konopnicki, a landowner and official, with whom she had six children. However, the marriage was unhappy and Konopnicka left her husband in 1878 to pursue her literary career in Warsaw. She soon gained recognition and popularity as a poet, novelist, children's writer, translator, journalist, and critic. She wrote in various genres, but mostly in realism, focusing on the social and moral issues of her time. She was also a strong advocate for women's rights, Polish independence, and the rights of ethnic and religious minorities in Prussia. She traveled extensively in Europe and lived abroad for several years, mainly in France, Italy, and Switzerland. She died of pneumonia in Lviv, Ukraine, in 1910, and was buried there with her friend and possible lover, Maria Dulębianka. Konopnicka is regarded as one of the most important and influential Polish writers of her era, and many of her works are considered classics of Polish literature and culture. Some of her most famous poems and songs are "Rota", "O krasnoludkach i o sierotce Marysi", "Mendel Gdański", and "Pan Balcer w Brazylii".