Miroslav Krleža

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Miroslav Krleža (7 July 1893 – 29 December 1981) was a Croatian writer who is often called the greatest Croatian writer of the 20th century. He wrote in many genres, including poetry, plays, short stories, novels, and diaries. His work often criticizes hypocrisy and conformity in society.

Key works and what they are about:
- Ballads of Petrica Kerempuh (Balade Petrice Kerempuha), 1936 – a long, poetic satire about a clever, funny common man.
- Messrs. Glembay (Gospoda Glembajevi), 1929 – a famous play about a decaying bourgeois family.
- The Croatian God Mars (Hrvatski bog Mars), 1922 – a collection of anti-war stories about Croatian soldiers in World War I.
- The Return of Philip Latinowicz (Povratak Filipa Latinovicz), 1932; On the Edge of Reason (Na rubu pameti), 1938; The Banquet in Blitva (Banket u Blitvi), 1939 – major novels that mix satire with social and political ideas.
- The Banners (Zastave), 1962 – a large, multi‑volume novel about Croatian society before, during, and after World War I.

Krleža was also a bold essayist and critic. He joined the Communist Party in 1918 but was expelled in 1939 for opposing socialist realism and the Great Purge. After World War II, he held important cultural jobs in Yugoslavia and advised President Tito. He helped found the Yugoslav Institute for Lexicography in 1950, which is now named after him. He won several major awards, including the NIN Prize in 1962 and the Herder Prize in 1968. Krleža died in Zagreb in 1981; his legacy lives on in Croatian culture and literature.