Wiesław Wernic (28 February 1906 in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

, 1 August 1986), popular

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

writer and journalist, best known for his series of

Wild West The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...

books, sometimes called "Polish

Karl May Karl Friedrich May ( , ; 25 February 1842 – 30 March 1912) was a German author. He is best known for his 19th century novels of fictitious travels and adventures, set in the American Old West with Winnetou and Old Shatterhand as main pro ...

". During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he was a member of the

Home Army The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) esta ...

and fought in the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occ ...

, and after the war he worked for a Polish daily

Rzeczpospolita () is the official name of Poland and a traditional name for some of its predecessor states. It is a compound of "thing, matter" and "common", a calque of Latin ''rés pública'' ( "thing" + "public, common"), i.e. ''republic'', in Engli ...

and weekly "Tygodnik Demokratyczny". His first stories were published in 1927, he returned to writing in the sixties when he wrote his first Wild West book "Tropy wiodą przez prerię". Over the next 30 years he wrote 20 books about the adventures of Doctor John (Jan in Polish; his alter ego) and his friend Charles (Karol in Polish) Gordon. Unlike Karl May to whom he was often compared, Wernic visited United States a number of times where he met with American Indians and was a leading authority on the history and customs of the Wild West. Some of his books were translated into

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

, Slovak,

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

and

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

languages. He sold well over 2,000,000 books in Poland and over 350,000 in other languages.

Works

* 1965 ( in German, in Slovak, in Czech) * 1966 ( in German, in Slovak, in Romanian) * 1967 ( in German, in Czech) * ''Colorado'' 1969 (''Colorado'' in German) * 1970 * 1970 * 1972 * 1972 * 1973 * 1974 * 1975 * 1976 * ''Barry Bede'' 1977 * ''Old Gray'' 1978 * 1980 * 1982 * 1983 * 1985 * 1988 * 1990

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wernic, Wieslaw 1906 births 1986 deaths Home Army members Polish male novelists Polish Lutherans Western (genre) writers Male journalists 20th-century Polish novelists 20th-century Polish journalists 20th-century Lutherans Warsaw Uprising insurgents