**ZEROMSKI, Stefan.** - Polish writer, b. at Strawczyn near Kielce on 1 Nov. 1864, d. at Warsaw on 20 Nov. 1925.
He had a difficult youth and was imprisoned for political reasons. The publication of the novel *Ashes* (*Ceneri*) freed him from hardship. He travelled to the Riviera and Corsica, and spent a long time in Paris. His first works: *Opowiadanie* (*Tales*); *Rozdrobią nas kruki, worony* (*The crows and ravens will tear us apart*); *Aryman się mści* (*Aryman takes revenge*); and other stories were published under the pseudonym Mauricy Zych. In the novel *Sisyfos w pracy* (*Sisyphus at Work*), largely autobiographical, he recounts the Polish resistance to the Russification of schools; in *Ludzie bezdomni* (*The Homeless*), social themes prevail. A group of novels and plays is inspired by events in Poland: *Popioły* (*Ashes*); *Wierna rzeka* (*The Faithful River*); *Sułkowski, Turon* (the name of a carnival scarecrow). The masterpiece of them all is the novel *Ashes*, a true epic of Poland in Napoleonic times, remarkable for its characterisation, sense of nature, and the ardour that pervades it and elevates it to the level of Tolstoy’s *War and Peace*, though it is inferior to that work in artistic balance, yet it commands attention through the passion with which the author lives the historical events.
In the somewhat stagnant atmosphere of the late positivist era, Z.’s work brought a pure breath of new life, embodying the sorrow of his homeland, a reflection of universal sorrow. Deeply pessimistic, he yet saw the value of life in man’s struggle for or against the collective and against hostile nature.