Isak Samokovlija
Isak Samokovlija (born September 3, 1889 in Goražde , † January 15, 1955 in Sarajevo ) was a Jewish Yugoslav writer from Bosnia .
Life
Samokovlija came from a Sephardic family who immigrated to Bosnia from the Bulgarian Samokovo . He had four brothers. As an eight-year-old boy, Samokovlija came to Sarajevo to attend school here. During his high school days, the first poems appeared in the almanac Zora .
With the help of a scholarship from the Jewish cultural and welfare society La Benevolentia , Samokovlija was able to study medicine in Vienna from 1910 . In 1917 he completed his studies and initially worked in an army hospital in Sarajevo. He married Hedda Brunner from Vienna, with whom he had three children.
In addition to his work as a doctor, Samokovlija continued to write poetry and began to publish in the magazine Jevrejski Život (articles, reviews, prose, Jewish topics). He also translated Jewish authors such as Shalom Asch . In 1927 Samokovlija's first story was published in the Serbian magazine Srpski knjizevni glasnik . This was followed by other successful stories from the Jewish milieu of Bosnia, which were also followed by stage plays in the 1930s.
In 1941 Samokovlija was released from service, but later drafted into the army of the Independent Croatian State , to which Bosnia now belonged. In 1942 he worked again in the hospital in Sarajevo.
After the Second World War, Samokovlija became editor-in-chief of Brazda magazine . He was elected President of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Writers 'Association, served on the governing body of the Yugoslav Writers' Congress and in 1948 received a literary prize from the Yugoslav government. Further stories that have now emerged have been translated into several other languages. In 1953 he was officially allowed to visit Israel and in 1954 France.
Samokovlija, who had suffered from kidney disease since the war, died of this disease at the age of 66 in the University Hospital of Sarajevo and was buried in the city's old Sephardic cemetery.
On May 20, 2006 the Post of Bosnia-Herzegovina issued a special postage stamp on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the publication of the book Bearer Samuel by Isak Samokovlija, which shows a portrait of the author.
Works
Samokovlija was an author of the realistic storytelling tradition, the importance of which lies in the description of the declining world of Sephardic Judaism in Bosnia.
- Od proljeća do proljeća , short stories 1929
- Plava Jevrejka , Drama 1932 (German: The blonde Jewess)
- Nosač Samuel , Tales 1946
- Tragom života , short stories 1948
- Solomunov slovo , short stories 1949
- Pripovijetke , short stories 1964
- Sabrana djela , 3 vols. 1967
- Hanka, German story 1972; Filming: Yugoslavia 1955 (Director: Slavko Vorkapić)
- The red dahlia, short stories, German 1975
Web links
- Literature by and about Isak Samokovlija in the catalog of the German National Library
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Samokovlija, Isak |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Bosnian-Herzegovinian writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 3, 1889 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Goražde |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 15, 1955 |
| Place of death | Sarajevo |