Dictionary.net

A celebrated Polish poet; born near Novogrodek, Lithuania, Dec. 24, 1798; died at Constantinople, Nov. 26, 1855. He was the greatest of Slavic poets. Banished from Poland for political reasons, he resided principally at Paris after 1828; was professor of the Slavic languages and literature at the College de France (1840-44). His great work was the epic "Pan Tadeusz" (Lord Thaddeus[of Warsaw]: 1834), a picture of Lithuanian life in 1812; though another epic, "Conrad Wallenrod" (1828), written while an exile in Russia, is hardly less renowned. Other important works were: a third epic, "Grazyna" (1822); the ballad "Dziady" (1823); "Crimean Sonnets" (1826); "The Books of the Polish People and of the Polish Pilgrimage" (1832); "Lectures on Slavic Literature", etc. ("Works", latest edition, 4 vols., Lemberg, 1893.)