Waliszewski was born in Gole, in Congress Poland.

He wrote detailed, scholarly works covering nearly three centuries of Russian history from Ivan the Terrible to the end of the nineteenth century.

[1] He began research in 1870, and devoted over thirty years of work in libraries and archives in Paris, London, Berlin, Vienna, and Saint Petersburg.

Waliszewski also researched Polish history and his book Poland, the Unknown offers a defence of the country's history against hostile Russian and German interpretations.

[2] As a man of letters, Waliszewski expressed his intention to introduce Joseph Conrad to the Polish public in 1903,[3] after the two had exchanged a number of letters.