Ivan Goran Kovačić

Ivan Goran Kovačić ( born March 21, 1913 in Lukovdol; † July 13, 1943 near Foca ) was a Yugoslav writer.

Life

The Croat Ivan Kovačić Jewish origin came from the Gorski Kotar, a poorly accessible, wooded mountainous region of Croatia. As this area has greatly influenced him, he gave himself the nickname Goran. He lost his father early, so he had to live in poverty with his mother and younger brother. After attending elementary school in his hometown, he went to high school in Karlovac 1923-1926, then to Zagreb, where he graduated in 1932. In Zagreb he studied Slavic and 1936, but did not graduate. He began as a proofreader at Hrvatski dnevnik, was later was editor. After 1938 lung disease, he tried to be 1940 Cultural Attaché in Bucharest, but failed. Instead, he became an editor at the newspaper Novosti, which was discontinued in 1941. In the independent Croatia, he was first determined as Head of the Post in Foca, but he managed a job at a publishing house to get. 1942, Kovačić together with Vladimir Nazor to the partisans, where he soon fell under suspicious circumstances near Foca. His grave is unknown.

Works

Kovačić wrote poems, stories and essays. He describes the hard and merciless fate of the people of his homeland of Gorski Kotar. Best known for his poem Jama, a passionate indictment of the horrors of war that has arisen in his time with the partisans, and was translated into many languages. Pablo Picasso was also inspired by the work.

• Lirika, Zagreb 1932
• Dani gnjeva, novellas, Zagreb 1936
• The great avenger, narrative, dt 1942
• Hrvatske pjesme partizanke, Šuma Javornica 1943
• Jama, Poem, Bari 1944 (Eng. The mass grave, Zagreb 1962)
• Ognji i Rože, Zagreb 1945
• Djela, 7 vols, 1946-49 Zagreb
• Izabrana Djela, Zagreb 1975
• Sabrana Djela, 5 vols, Zagreb 1984

Afterlife

In 1993, the Croatian Post issued a stamp in honor of the poet. A school in Slavonski Brod is named after him, as is the Academic Choir in Zagreb. There is a plaque next to a monument at his birthplace in Lukovdol. This takes place every year on the birthday of the writer, the event Goranovo Proljeće instead.