A versatile and prolific writer whose productive years spanned a formative half century in Croatian history, Vladimir Nazor is not only a monumental literary figure in his homeland but also a cultural hero of the twentieth century. At the beginning of his career his nontraditional metrics, adulation of pagan Slavic heritage, and lyrical tribute to the natural beauty of the Istrian countryside and Dalmatian coast contributed to the ongoing process of antirealist opposition and modernist innovation. Yet he was also capable of mimetic exactitude and social engagement. Nazor responded personally to the vicissitudes of the Croatian literary and cultural scene from colonialism through partisan revolt to Socialist independence in his poems, epics, long and short prose fiction, essays, criticism, memoirs, and even textbooks.

Vladimir Nazor was born on 30 May 1876 in Prostira, on the island of Brac off the Dalmatian coast of Croatia. He was one of six children...