Radovan Ivšić was a Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

n writer, best known for his drama Kralj Gordogan

Kralj Gordogan

King Gordogan is a surrealist play written by the Croatian poet Radovan Ivšić in 1943....

and book of poems Crno. Ivšić spent his life uncompromising in the spirit of liberty. Those values made him close to surrealist movement. He was a friend of André Breton

André Breton

André Breton was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism"....

 and one of the signers of last Les Manifestes du surréalisme, 1955. His famous quotations are “Never gave up your dreams” and paraphrase “We are our dreams”.

Biography

Born as a son of Stjepan Ivšić

Stjepan Ivšic

Stjepan Ivšić , Croatian linguist, Slavist and accentologist.After finishing primary school in Orahovica, he attended secondary school in Osijek and Požega. At the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Zagreb he studied Croatian and classical philology, and later specialized at the...

, a Croatian linguist, Slavist, accentologist and Rector of University of Zagreb

University of Zagreb

The University of Zagreb is the biggest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of Southeastern Europe...

 (1940–43). After Classical High School and graduation at University of Zagreb, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, in 1954 managed to immigrate to Paris where remains for the rest of his life.

Controversy

Fascist prime minister of Croatia during World War II, Ante Pavelić

Ante Pavelic

Ante Pavelić was a Croatian fascist leader, revolutionary, and politician. He ruled as Poglavnik or head, of the Independent State of Croatia , a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany in Axis-occupied Yugoslavia...

, personally ordered confiscation of his first book, Narcis. His theatrical play Kralj Gordogan was forbidden in Croatia under fascist and communist dictatorship until 1979. He criticizes cheap politic, communism and false surrealism. He was the biggest critic of Miroslav Krleža

Miroslav Krleža

Miroslav Krleža was a leading Croatian and Yugoslav writer and the dominant figure in cultural life of both Yugoslav states, the Kingdom and the Republic . He has often been proclaimed the greatest Croatian writer of the 20th century.-Biography:Miroslav Krleža was born in Zagreb, modern-day...

, often proclaimed as the greatest Croatian writer of the 20th century. Ivšić rejects all awards and medals.

Selected works

• Daha (drama), 1941
• Narcis (poem), 1942
• Kralj Gordogan
  Kralj Gordogan
  King Gordogan is a surrealist play written by the Croatian poet Radovan Ivšić in 1943....
  
  (drama), 1943
• Kapetan Oliver (drama), 1944
• Vodnik pobjednik (drama), 1944
• Snjeguljica (drama), 1948
• Tanke (collection of poems), 1954
• Akvarij (drama), 1956
• Mavena (collection of poems), 1960
• Mavena (collection of poems), 1972
• Autour ou dedans (collection of poems), 1974
• Crno (collection of poems), 1974
• Bunar u kuli (collection of poems), 1974
• Aixaia ili Moć riječi (drama), 1980
• Sunčani grad (drama)