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Front: J. Dabrowski

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Front: Frédéric-François Chopin (1810-1849), one of the greatest Polish composers for the piano

He was born "Fryderyk Franciszek", of French and Polish parentage in the village of Zelazowa Wola, Poland. In Warsaw he was hailed as a child prodigy for his keyboard and composition skill. He adopted the French variant of his name, "Frédéric-François", when he left for Paris at the age of 20, having already composed his two piano concertos, and he never returned to live in Poland.

In Paris, he made a career as a performer and teacher as well as a composer. In 1836 he met the French writer Amandine-Aurore-Lucile Dupin, Baroness Dudevant, better known by her pseudonym George Sand, with whom he had a relationship for nine years until 1847. After suffering poor health for much of his life, his condition forced him to give up performing and teaching shortly before he died.

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Front: Marie Curie (1867-1934), physicist

Marie Curie was born Marie Sklodowska in Warsaw, Poland. In 1891 she moved to France where she studied mathematics and physics at the Sorbonne. She married Pierre Curie in 1895, and in 1898 the couple electrified the world with the discovery of radium. In 1903, Marie, her husband, and Henri Becquerel received the Nobel Prize in physics for their work on radioactivity. Six years after her husband's accidental death, she received the 1911 Nobel Prize, in recognition of her work in isolating radium in its pure metallic form and developing the first international standard for measuring the substance. During World War I, Marie worked as an "X-ray technician," taught radiologic technology, and equipped mobile X-ray vans to assist in the war effort. She died on 4 July 1934, at age 67.

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Front: Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont (1867-1925), Polish author

Reymont was a Polish writer and novelist, whose work offer a vast panorama of Polish life in the last quarter of the 19th century. Wladyslaw Reymont was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1924. He is best known for The Peasants, an epic, four-part novel of peasant life. It is almost entirely written in peasant dialect. Reymont considered it his best work.

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This note is not in my collection. Scans courtesy of Kevin Klauss

Front: Ignace Jan Paderewski (1860-1941), Polish pianist, composer, and statesman

Paderewski studied at the Warsaw Conservatory and later with Theodor Leschetizky. Following debuts in Vienna (1887) and Paris (1888), his brilliant, sensitive playing won him worldwide popularity exceeding that of any performer since Franz Liszt. In 1890 he made the first of many concert tours of the United States.

An ardent patriot, he briefly headed Polish governments in 1919 and 1940-41 (the latter in exile). He amassed a large fortune, most of which he donated to the service of Poland and the benefit of needy musicians and Jewish refugees. Paderewski died shortly after returning to the United States to plead Poland's cause once again. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery until 1992, when his body was returned to Poland. In addition to the famous Minuet in G for piano, his works include some orchestral music, an opera, a cantata, a violin sonata, and piano pieces and songs.

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