The work of Milos Crnjanski, which includes novels, poetry, short stories, essays, and travel books, ranks among the highest accomplishments of modern Serbian literature. While the range and depth of both his prose and his verse place him in the forefront of twentieth-century Serbian writers, the singularity of his style gives him an even more extraordinary place.

Crnjanski was born on 26 October 1893 in Congrad, Hungary, to an impoverished Serbian family--Thomas, a local notary public, and Mary Crnjanski. Completing his primary education in Pancevo, where he stayed with his maternal grandfather, Crnjanski subsequently entered a high school in Temesvar, where he lodged with a poor schoolteacher named Dusan Beric, who according to Crnjanski's recollections was as influential in his intellectual development as his parents. After the death of Crnjanski's father in 1909 his mother moved to Temesvar (now Timisoara), and Crnjanski lived with her until his graduation in 1912. He then...