Background

Ante Slobodan Novak was born on November 3, 1924 in Split, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (present-day Split, Croatia). He was the son of Duje Novak, a caterer, and Marija (Smoje) Novak. His mother died early, so he went to live with his aunt on Rab, an Adriatic island.

Education

In his early years, Slobodan attended the Catholic Seminary and state high school in Split but halted his studies at the outbreak of World War II, when Italy came to occupy Dalmatia. After a while, Novak completed his secondary education in Susak, near Rijeka. After he finished his studies, he joined the National Liberation Movement forces (Partisans).

Slobodan began writing in high school and continued to write through the two years between high school and college, sending his work to war newspapers. After the war, he attended the University of Zagreb, graduating with a degree from the Faculty of Philosophy in 1953.

Career

Novak and his literary friends founded a literary journal, called "Izvor" ("The Source"), in 1948. He served as its editor and contributed articles to the publication. Two years later, he published his first volume of poetry, Glasnice u oluji, and joined the Drustvo hrvatskih knijizevnika (Society of Croatian Writers). After "Izvor" folded in 1951, Novak launched a new literary journal, titled "Krugovi" ("Circles"). This was an important journal to young Croatian writers, interested in modernist ideas and disenchanted with the dogmatic literature of the previous generation. Novak and his colleagues contributed Western-European inspired literature, essays and reviews. The journal occasionally printed translations of European works by writers, such as T. S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf and Boris Pasternak. Novak also worked as a journalist, writing for the Zagreb newspaper "Vjesnik" ("The Herald"). He published his second poetry collection, Pjesme, in 1953 with his friends and colleagues, Nikola Milicevic and Vlatko Pavletic, and published a collection of his own poems in a book, Iza lukobrana.

After this, Novak's career reached a turning point. From 1952 to 1954, he wrote prose fragments in literary journals. His first volume of short novellas, Izgubljeni zavicaj, was published in 1955. That year, he was appointed director of drama at the Croatian National Theater in Split. At this time, his writing became more autobiographical. Through the late 1950's and early 1960's, Novak served as an editor for the literary journal "Moguc'nosti" ("Possibilities"), the newspaper "Slobodna Dalmacija" ("Free Dalmatia") and the publishing house "Lykos." He also worked as a journalist at Radio Zagreb. He published his second prose volume, Tvrdi grad, in 1961; it was republished as Novele in 1962.

In 1960, Novak published his first dramatic text, Trofej, co-authored with Stjepan Perovic. The drama was performed over Radio Zagreb in 1964. Through the 1960's and 1970's, Novak had several of his fiction pieces adapted and performed at Radio Zagreb. From 1964 to 1983, Novak worked as an editor in the publishing houses "Zora" and "Naprijed." He published only two books during this period, Mirisi, zlato i tamjan and Izvanbrodski dnevnik.

In his later years, in 2001, Novak published a collection of interviews with Jelena Hekman in Digresije (Digressions). He then published Protimbe (Dissent) in 2003, which he considered as an expansion of Digresije.

Achievements

• Slobodan Novak was best known as a major twentieth-century European prose writer, whose works include a half dozen novels, story collections and adaptations for television and radio. For the book, Izgubljeni zavicaj, Novak became known as the first Croatian writer of his time to write without a clear ideological dogma. His work freed other authors to break from socialist realism and write less politically-oriented literature.
  
  Slobodan won an award for best radio play at the 1966 Yugoslav Radio-Television festival in Novi Sad and an international prize two years later in Prague. Novak won several prestigious literary prizes for his novel, Mirisi, zlato i tamjan, including the Matica Hrvatska Publishing House Award, the NIN Award, the annual Croatian State Award and the Vladimir Nazor Award. Also, Mirisi, zlato i tamjan was adapted into a film by Ante Babaja in 1971 and into a play by Bozidar Violic' in 1974. Slobodan also received the Order of Duke Trpimir and the Order of Danica Hrvatska. His books have been translated into seven languages and adapted for four feature films between 1966 and 1991.
  
  It's also worth noting, that, on July 27, 1999, Novak was declared an Honorary Citizen of Rab.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh

    (Dispossessed of her vast property on the island of Rab by...)

    1968
  • Izgubljeni zavicaj 1955
  • Mirisi zlato i tamjan 1968
  • Izvanbrodski dnevnik 1976
  • Juzne misli 1990
  • Novele 1963
  • Hrvatska drama do narodnog preporoda 1984

Politics

Novak participated in World War II as a member of the National Liberation Movement (Partisans).

Views

Death and graveyards feature prominently in Novak's work. Novak was absorbed with the contrast between life and mortality, and his work is driven by a desire to understand human existence. His short stories also explore the psychological damage, incurred by war.

In his book, Izvanbrodski dnevnik, Novak is more revealing of his ethics and he makes his moral values and beliefs clearer. He expresses his awareness of the hidden ethical whirlpools inside the human mind and indicates his concern for the survival of human individuality.

Membership

Novak was a member of the Croatian Writers' Association and the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

• 

  member

  Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts , Croatia

  1983

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• "By the complex body of work he has created, Novak has contributed immensely to Croatian literature and has rightfully become one of its most prominent writers." - Aldijana Sisic

Connections

Novak was married to Nada Nedeljkovic. They had two sons.

Father:

Duje Novak

Mother:

Marija (Smoje) Novak

Wife:

Nada Nedeljkovic

References

• Contemporary Authors New Revision Series In response to the escalating need for up-to-date information on writers, Contemporary Authors New Revision Series (Volume 198) brings researchers the most recent data on the world's most popular authors.
  2010
• DLB 181: South Slavic Writers Since World War II Dictionary of Literary Biography provides reliable information in an easily comprehensible format, while placing writers in the larger perspective of literary history.
  1997