Desanka Maksimović was a Serbian poet, translator, short-story writer, novelist, travel writer, and children’s book writer. The luminary career of major Serbian poet Desanka Maksimovic lasted over seventy years and resisted alignment with any one school, group, or trend.
Background
Ethnicity:
Maksimovic descended from Herzegovinian immigrants.
Desanka Maksimović was born on May 16, 1898, in Rabrovica (near Valjevo), Serbia. She was the daughter of Mihailo and Draginja (Petrovic) Maksimovic.
Her maternal grandfather had served as a Serbian Orthodox priest in Brankovina. He and Mihailo (who also wrote poetry for children) loved literature, and nurtured this love in Maksimovic and her seven siblings. Hers was a happy and memorable childhood. The family later moved to Valjevo, and then Belgrade. But Maksimovic never forgot her homeland, Brankovina, returning often both in her poetry and in person. It is in this landscape that she found renewal, inspiration, and comfort. Maksimovic experienced her first personal tragedy when her father died of typhoid fever as a Serbian soldier during World War I.
Education
Through the war she taught herself French reading the works of Hippolyte Taine and others. Afterwards she finished high school in Valjevo.
In 1924, Maksimović attended the University of Belgrade. In 1925, Maksimović earned a French Government scholarship for a year's study at the University of Paris.
While she was still in college Maksimovic took her poetry to her German teacher in Valjevo, the poet Sima Pandurovic. She had hoped he would olfer advice, and recommend a few of her poems for publication in the journal Misao (for which Pandurovic was an editor). Panurovic passed the notebooks to the editor in chief, Velimir Zivojinovic, who was intrigued. He published the entire collection in Misao in 1920 and 1921. He later included a great deal of Maksimovic’s poetry in the Antologija najnovije srpske poezije, and her poem “Strepnja” (Anxiety) was voted the best poem by readers. From then on she began publishing her poems in the prestigious Belgrade literary journal, Srpski knjizevni glasnik, and in anthologies.
Maksimovic published her first poetry collection, Pesme. Critics applauded the collection. The elite First High School for Girls in Belgrade hired her as a professor, and she remained there, except for a brief interval during World War II, until 1953.
The 1920s and 1930s were turbulent times for Serbian literature. A number of iconoclastic writers, collectively referred to as the New Modernism, took issue with Maksimovichs poetry for its adherence to traditional poetic forms and for its apolitical stance. Maksimovic held her ground with dignity, and did not retaliate.
During World War II, Maksimovic was forced to leave the school for a time. She spent the war living in Brankovina, Valjevo, and Belgrade, making and selling dolls and children’s clothes. She did not publish anything during this time, though she did write some patriotic poetry in reaction to the horrors of war. Slijivic-Simsic described them as “lyrical and gentle in time, very much in tune with her entire poetic opus; they give strength to resist rather than ignite a desire to attack.”
In 1964, forty years after the publication of her first collection of poetry, Maksimovic published a collection of seasoned, contemplative poetry, Trazim pomilovanje. Critics and readers praised its original poetic structure and the powerful message of mercy, forgiveness, and compassion for all who have sulfered, regardless of gender, class, or history. The collection was a national best-seller. She was elected a full member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1965, and two years later awarded a medal of honor from the Soviet Union.
Maksimovic could well have retired at this point, and still enjoyed renown as one of Serbia’s most important poets. But in 1973 she published another collection of poetry, Neman vise vremena. This collection was inspired by three deaths in her family, including her husband’s in 1970.
Maksimovic traveled throughout Europe, the Americas, Australia, and China during the 1970s and 1980s. She published a collection of poems, Pesme iz Norveske and a travel book, Snirnci iz Svajcarske. She celebrated her ninetieth birthday with her last collection of poetry, Pamtic’u sve, in 1988. It is her farewell to life and her preparation for death.
A consummate individualist, Maksimovic took Serbian traditional forms and renewed them with her own original perspectives and talent.
Views
There is a theme of resignation and tranquil acceptance of death, which Maksimovic sees as a return to nature and a union with eternity.
Quotations:
“I would not have had as many friends as I have now if I had not been able to forget the biting jokes or critical remarks about my poetry and myself.”
Membership
Maksimović was a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Personality
In the 1970s and 1980s, Maksimovic enjoyed some of the fruits of fame and traveled widely. In addition to visiting many European nations, including the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom, she accepted invitations from academic and literary hosts in Australia, Canada, the United States, and the People's Republic of China. In 1980, during a visit to America, she was warmly received by the North American Society for Serbian Studies.
Interests
Writers
Jovan Ducic
Connections
In 1933, Maksimović married Russian emigre Sergej Nikiforovic Slastikov. Though they never had children, they collaborated on projects for children and young people.