Poet. Silvije Strahimir Kranjčević achieved renown as a Croatian realism poet mainly in the late 19th century. A resident in what was in the Austria-Hungary Empire, Kranjčević's poetic collection consists of 421 published poems. Born into a large blended family, his father was married three times before his birth and his mother twice, thus he had several half or step siblings, with many entering into successful professions after college. He was a mediocre student with behavior problems. He dropped from a formal education in his first year of high school, yet that did not stop his writings. His first poem was published in the right-wing magazine"Testament" early in 1883 under the name of Silv Kr, then he published the poem "Zavjet" or "The Pledge" at the age of 18, and a year later his first collection "Bugarkinje." In the fall of 1883 he was sent to Rome to study at the elite Germanico-Hungaricum Institute in preparation of becoming a priest but returned home in eight months. While in Rome, he sent two other poems to a magazine to be published. He remembered episodes from this trip that he would later use in his poetry. After spending time with right-wing political writers, he published his first collection, "Bulgarian Women" in 1885. He was active with the Croatian Party of Rights, which was a center-right political party established in 1861. Many of his poems had themes related to the Hungarian oppression of Croatia. At this point, he studied language and history for one year, earning a teacher's diploma for public schools. Since he did not meet the educational requirements to teach in Croatia, he left his homeland. While writing poetry, he taught school in Bosnia starting in 1886 followed by Herzegovina, and Sarajevo, where he would reside the rest of his life. From 1895 to 1903, he was the editor of Kosta Hörmann's successful literary magazine, "Nada." Making "Nada" successful was the result of him inviting not only Bosnian writers, but leading Croatian and Serbian writers. He published many essays criticizing literature. After the magazine folded, he was appointed in 1904 as a director of a trade school. Other collections that he published were "Selected Songs" in 1898, "Jerks" in 1902 and "Poems" posthumously in 1908. His poems' themes were about universal problems of human existence, sense of history with patriotism, tyranny or social injustice. Years after his death, his poems were more appreciated by an audience, who experienced the terrors of the Nazi regime during World War II. Remembering his time in Rome, his poems touched on Christianity, yet the church was often displeased with his work as he often romanticized the character of Lucifer, was a skeptic in believing the Bible, and rebel against canonized values. He married Garijela Kasa on February 17, 1898 and the couple had a daughter in 1904. After becoming ill with gall stones starting in 1903, he went to Vienna, Austria in 1906 for treatment and had three surgeries. He was discharged but never fully recuperated becoming suddenly ill with severe pain and died in 1908. A bronze bust of him is on display in Veliki Park in Sarajevo and a very modern sculpture dedicated to him is on display in front of the Faculty of Philosophy Building in Zagreb, the capital and the largest city of Croatia. His short stories were interesting, but they did not become as popular as his poetry. Shortly before his death, he authored only one act of a drama. His widow offered the drama, in hope that it would be performed in the theater, to a producer, but government censorship would not allow the performance. A four-volume collection of his poetry was published in the 1930s: in 1933 "For the People" and in 1934 "For Man," "Before Visions," and "Through Life and Work." His digitized legacy was published on the Internet. Two portraits of him were painted, and a postage stamp issued in his honor in 2008. His poems have been translated into many languages including German, English, French, Italian, and many east European languages.
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