Josip Ribičič was a Slovene writer, known as an author of popular children"s literature.
Background
He was born as Josip Ribičić in the town of Baška on the island Krk (now in Croatia, then part of Austria-Hungary). His father Juraj was a Croat from Dalmatia who worked on Krk as an Austro-Hungarian public servant, while his mother Marija Križanič was a Slovene from Gorenja Vas near Kanal ob Soči in what was then the County of Gorizia and Gradisca (now in Slovenia).
Education
Josip attended elementary school in Lig, and then enrolled to a teacher"s college in Koper.
Career
In 1925, he moved to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in order to escape Fascist Italian persecution. He first worked as a teacher in Rakek, and from 1929 in Ljubljana. In 1942, during World World War II, he was arrested by the Italian occupation authorities of the Province of Ljubljana, accused of collaboration with the Liberation Front of the Slovenian People and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
He was released in 1944 by the Nazi German authorities.
After the end of the war, he continued shortly his teaching profession. In 1949, he was employed in the Slovenian Ministry of Education.
He died in Ljubljana.