Antoni Gorecki was a Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 poet and writer, author of satires and short stories for children.

He was born in 1787 in Wilno, where he finished primary school. In 1802 he started studying at the Faculty of Literature of the University of Vilnius, where he became friends with Joachim Lelewel

Joachim Lelewel

Joachim Lelewel was a Polish historian and politician, from a Polonized branch of a Prussian family.His grandparents were Heinrich Löllhöffel von Löwensprung and Constance Jauch , who later polonized her name to Lelewel.-Life:Born in Warsaw, Lelewel was educated at the Imperial University of...

. In 1805 he graduated and soon afterwards he left Imperial Russia for the Duchy of Warsaw

Duchy of Warsaw

The Duchy of Warsaw was a Polish state established by Napoleon I in 1807 from the Polish lands ceded by the Kingdom of Prussia under the terms of the Treaties of Tilsit. The duchy was held in personal union by one of Napoleon's allies, King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony...

. In 1809 he volunteered for the Polish Army fighting alongside Napoleon Bonaparte in the Napoleonic Wars

Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

. Between 1809 and 1812 he took part in most of the battles that took place in the territory of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...

. After the Congress of Vienna

Congress of Vienna

The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...

 he remained in exile and travelled across Europe, but finally in 1818 he returned to his hometown.

There he published many of his poems, short stories, fables and fairy-tales. Also, he was one of the most notable members of the Towarzystwo Szubrawców (Scumbags Society) and one of co-authors of its main organ - the Wiadomości Brukowe (Tabloid News) satirical weekly. In 1830 he again volunteered for the Polish Army and served during the November Uprising

November Uprising

The November Uprising , Polish–Russian War 1830–31 also known as the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in Warsaw when the young Polish officers from the local Army of the Congress...

 against Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. After it was crushed, Gorecki had to leave his homeland and emigrated to France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, where he finally settled in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. There, he was an active member of many notable Polish cultural and political associations. He also continued to publish new poems - eleven volumes all together. He also became one of the closest friends of Adam Mickiewicz

Adam Mickiewicz

Adam Bernard Mickiewicz ) was a Polish poet, publisher and political writer of the Romantic period. One of the primary representatives of the Polish Romanticism era, a national poet of Poland, he is seen as one of Poland's Three Bards and the greatest poet in all of Polish literature...

. His son was later married to Mickiewicz's daughter, Maria.

Antoni Gorecki died on 18 September 1861, in Paris. He is buried in the Montmorency

Montmorency

- Places :In Australia:* Montmorency, Victoria, suburb of Melbourne** Montmorency railway stationIn Canada:* Montmorency Falls, Quebec* Montmorency , Quebec* Montmorency , Quebec...

cemetery.