'Vladimir Bartol' (
february 24 1903 –
september 12 1967) was a
Slovene writer, most famous for his novel ''
Alamut''. Alamut was published in
1938 and translated into numerous languages, becoming the most popular work of Slovene literature around the world.
Biography
Bartol was born on
February 24,
1903 in the village of Sveti Ivan (''San Giovanni'' in Italian), now a suburb of
Trieste (then part of the
Austro-Hungarian empire) as the third child out of seven to Gregor Bartol, a post office clerk, and Marica Bartol-Nadlišek, a teacher and writer. His parents offered their children extensive education. His mother introduced him to
painting, his father to
biology. In his autobiographical
short stories, he described himself as an oversensitive and slightly odd child with a rich fantasy life. He was interested in many things: biology and
philosophy,
psychology,
art, and of course
theatre and
literature. As a scientist, he collected and researched
butterflies.
Vladimir Bartol began his elementary and secondary schooling in
Trieste and concluded it in
Ljubljana, where he enrolled at the
University of Ljubljana to study biology and philosophy. He gave special attention to the work of
Sigmund Freud. He graduated in
1925 and continued his studies at
Sorbonne in
Paris (
1926–
1927), for which he obtained a scholarship. In
1928 he served the army in
Petrovaradin (now in
Serbia). From
1933 to
1934, he lived in
Belgrade, where he edited the ''Slovenian Belgrade Weekly''. Afterward, he returned to Ljubljana where he lived as a freelance writer until
1941. During
World War II he actively participated in the resistance movement. After the war he moved to his hometown Trieste, where he spent an entire decade, from
1946 to
1956. Later he was elected to the
Slovenian Academy of Sciences And Arts (SAZU) as an associate member, moved to Ljubljana and continued to work for SAZU until his death on
September 12,
1967.
Bibliography
★ ''Lopez'' (
1932, a drama)
★ ''Al Araf'' (
1935, a collection of short stories)
★ ''
Alamut'' (
1938, a novel), translated into
Czech (
1946),
Serbian (
1954),
French (
1988),
Spanish (
1989),
Italian (
1989),
German (
1992),
Turkish,
Persian (
1995),
Arabic,
Greek,
Korean and other languages. An English translation finally appeared in 2004 by Scala House Press in Seattle,
USA, ISBN 0-9720287-3-0.
As of 2003 it is being translated into
Hebrew and
Hungarian.
★ ''Tržaške humoreske'' (
1957, a collection of short stories)
★ ''Don Lorenzo'' (
1985, a story)
★ ''Mladost pri Svetem Ivanu'' (
2001, an autobiography)
See also
★
List of Slovenes
External links
★
Slovene Government Public Relations and Media Office Article