Poland is home to a remarkable and storied culture, and its literature is no different. One of the great Polish writers of the last century was Wladyslaw Reymont. Reymont took an unusual path to his career as a writer, but this did not diminish the impact he would have on his country.

Wladyslaw Reymont was born on May 7, 1867 in the southern Polish town of Kobielo Wielkie. He lived as a peasant growing up in the rural area near the thriving city of Lodz. From the time he was a child, Reymont took a keen interest in books. Although he read as much as possible, it did not translate into success in the classroom. Reymont’s education ended abruptly when he was unable to pass the examination needed to get into secondary school.

Following his departure from school, Wladyslaw Reymont moved away from home and joined a tailors’ guild, where he began an apprenticeship. Prior to his completion of the apprenticeship, he was kicked out of the guild when it was discovered he had participated in a strike in Lodz. After his expulsion from the tailors’ guild, Reymont bounced around between jobs. He traveled briefly with a theater group and joined a monastery for a short period before landing a job in the railroad industry.

During his time with the railroad companies, Reymont found time to pursue his true passion- writing. After suffering an injury in a railroad accident, he was given a substantial amount of money in a settlement from the railroad company, which provided him with financial stability for the rest of his life. Although the accident physically devastated Reymont, the situation provided him the opportunity to meet his future wife, Aurelia Szacnajder Szablowska, who worked as his nurse during the recovery.

Wladyslaw Reymont found acclaim in the writing industry for his representation of rural life in Poland. He addressed the hardships for Polish peasants in his 1899 novel The Promised Land, which provided a look into the struggles peasants encountered in the face of growing industrialization. Other books that became popular Reymont titles were Pilgrimage to the Mountains of Life and Ferments.

He found his greatest success with the release of his four volume series The Peasants. In the series, Reymont tells a ten month long story about Poles living in the Polish country. What makes The Peasants stand out is that it is written using different regional dialects found throughout Poland.

Wladyslaw Reymont was recognized for his outstanding contributions to Polish literature in 1924, when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Reymont physically was unable to attend the presentation ceremony, and lived for only one year after receiving the award.

Read more about Wladyslaw Reymont here:
www.kirjasto.sci.fi/reymont.htm , www.nndb.com