Boleslaw Prus (1847-1912), who took the pen surname Prus
from the appellation of his family's coat of arms, at age 15 joined the 1863 Polish Uprising
against Imperial Russia, where he suffered severe battle injuries. He was spared resettlement on Russian imperial
lands and was able to complete secondary school. He studied mathematics and
physics at Warsaw University, until his studies there were cut short by penury. At age 25 in 1872, Prus embarked on a forty-year
career as a newspaper columnist, urging Poles to study science and technology
and to develop industry and commerce. After
achieving great acclaim with his short stories, between 1886 and 1893 he wrote
three novels on the "great questions of our age" The Outpost, The
Doll, and The New Woman. In 1894-95, he completed his only
historical novel, Pharaoh.
