Susan Sontag 
In America 

The story of
In America is inspired by the emigration to America in 1876 of Helena Modrzejewska, Poland”s most celebrated actress, accompanied by her husband, Count Karol Chlapowski, her fifteen-year-old son, Rudolf, the young journalist and future author of
Quo Vadis, Henryk Sienkiewicz, and a few friends; their brief sojourn in Anaheim, California; and Modrzejewska”s subsequent triumphant career on the American stage under the name Helena Modjeska.