Which Polish novelist led a delegation urging Curie to return to Poland?

Henryk Sienkiewicz led a delegation urging Marie Curie to return to Poland.

The delegation visited Curie in Paris in May 1912, after Polish scientific leaders sought to persuade her to continue her work in Warsaw. Sienkiewicz was an internationally celebrated Polish novelist, best known for Quo Vadis and the historical trilogy beginning with With Fire and Sword. He had also received the 1905 Nobel Prize in Literature.

The appeal had powerful national significance. Poland was still partitioned among neighboring empires, and Curie’s success in France made her a symbol of Polish intellectual achievement. A laboratory was being developed in Warsaw, and the delegation hoped that her return would strengthen Polish science and national morale.

Curie did not move back permanently. Her scientific life, laboratory, and family responsibilities were firmly established in Paris. She did, however, remain connected to Poland: in 1913 she accepted the honorary directorship of Warsaw’s Radiological Laboratory and became an honorary member of the Warsaw Scientific Society. Sienkiewicz’s role is sometimes confused with that of other Polish writers, but the delegation’s leading literary figure was him.