Jan Czempiński: “To the Bosom of the Homeland”… [1927] – Henryk Sienkiewicz’s funeral

Jan Czempiński, “To the Bosom of the Homeland”…, Warsaw 1927

(published by the National Education Society; in consultation with the Main Committee for the Repatriation of Remains to Poland)

“To the bosom of the homeland”… this is a description of the repatriation to Poland of the remains of Henryk Sienkiewicz, the 1905 Nobel Prize laureate, who died on November 15, 1916, in Vevey, Switzerland, and was buried there. In October 1924, a funeral train departed from Vevey and traveled through Switzerland, Austria, and Czechoslovakia before reaching Poland. The ceremonies concluded on October 27, 1924, with the interment of the coffin in the crypt of St. John’s Cathedral in Warsaw. The book was published in 1927 by the National Education Society “in memory of future generations.”

The author, Jan Czempiński, as a delegate of the Warsaw Journalists’ Union, traveled as part of the honor guard accompanying the coffin and sent reports to the *Kurier Warszawski* from along the route. Krzysztof Stępnik, writing in *Pamiętnik Literacki* (2024), considers his comprehensive book a treasure trove of knowledge about these ceremonies. The text is preceded by a portrait of Henryk Sienkiewicz; the book includes photographs, among others, of the General Committee for Aid to War Victims in Poland, which operated in Vevey under the writer’s leadership.

We have preserved the original front cover of the paperback inside the volume. This copy underwent conservation treatment at the Antykwariat Polski workshop. The book block was mechanically cleaned, and the sections were re-sewn by hand, restoring the volume’s structural stability.

A leather-bound volume handcrafted from the finest materials by master artisans at the Antykwariat Polski bookbindery. Natural leather, with a marbled paper endpaper.

The mission of Antykwariat Polski is based on a simple belief: valuable Polish books deserve to survive. Not as exhibits behind glass, but as living objects—preserved, bound with the utmost artisanal care, and ready for centuries to come in a collector’s library.

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