[4] She was home-schooled and spent a year (1855–56) at a convent pension of the Sisters of Eucharistic Adoration in Warsaw (Zespół klasztorny sakramentek w Warszawie).

[6] She gained popularity after the 1876 publication of her poem, "W górach" ("In the Mountains"), which was praised by future Nobel laureate Henryk Sienkiewicz.

[7] She was a friend of a Polish woman poet of the Positivist period, Eliza Orzeszkowa,[12] and of the painter and activist Maria Dulębianka.

In addition to being an active writer, she was also a social activist, organizing and participating in protests against the repression of ethnic (primarily Polish) and religious minorities in Prussia.

[6] In 1884 she began writing children's literature, and in 1888 she debuted as an adult-prose writer with Cztery nowele (Four Short Stories).

[6] Due to the growing popularity of her writings, in 1902 a number of Polish activists decided to reward her by buying her a manor house.

[6] She would try her hand at many genres of literature, such as reportage sketches, narrative memoirs, psychological portrait studies and others.

[4][6] Another one was Rota (Oath, 1908) which set to the music by Feliks Nowowiejski two years later became an unofficial anthem of Poland, particularly in the territories of the Prussian Partition.

[19]Her most famous children's literature work is the 1896 O krasonoludkach i sierotce Marysi (Little Orphan Mary and the Gnomes).