Svetozar Vajanský

Vajanský, Svetozar 

(pseudonym for Hurban). Born Jan. 16, 1847, in Hlboké; died Aug. 17, 1916, in Turčiansky Svätý Martin. Slovakian writer and publicist.

Vajanský began his literary career in 1880. His first collection of verses, The Tatra Mountains and the Sea, deals with the uprising of the southern Slavs against the Turks and the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. His lyrics are full of protests against the oppression of his nation. He also wrote the following novellas and novels that dealt with the upper classes of Slovakian society: Flying Shadows (1883), The Dry Branch (1884), Roots and Sprouts (1896), and Kotlín (1901). From 1906 to 1916 he edited the newspaper Národnie noviny. Vajanský felt that Slovakia would progress if it returned to a patriarchal style of life. As a literary critic he supported realism.

WORKS

Sobrané diela, vols. 1-18. Turčiansky Sväty Martin, 1936-49. In Russian translation:
Letiashchie teni. In Slovatskie povesti i rasskazy. Moscow, 1953.