DESANKA MAKSIMOVIĆ Comments

Desanka Maksimović (died 1993) was born in Rabrovica, Serbia, in 1898. In 1964, she published one of her most acclaimed works, Tražim pomilovanje ('I Seek Clemency') . The work's veiled critique of the Tito government made it especially popular.

In 1965 she became a full-fledged member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. She became involved in efforts to combat government censorship in the early 1980s and was active until her death 1993. She was the first female Serbian poet to gain widespread acceptance within Yugoslav literary circles and among the general public. She was described as " the most beloved Serbian poet of the 20th century"

Maksimović was the first female Serbian poet to gain widespread acceptance within Yugoslav literary circles and among the general public. One literary scholar notes that she served as an example for other Serbian women wishing to take up the craft. Maksimović's reputation, which was such that most of her contemporaries referred to her simply by her first name, has led one author to describe her as ''the most beloved Serbian poet of the twentieth century''.

In 1925, Maksimović earned a French Government scholarship for a year's study at the University of Paris. Upon her return, she was appointed a professor at Belgrade's elite First High School for Girls, a position she would hold continuously until World War II. Under Serbian occupation by the Germans, she was dismissed from her post at the high school (1941) , and was reduced to a state of poverty and forced to work odd jobs to survive the 3-year occupation.

She was only permitted to publish children's literature during this period, but secretly compiled a collection of patriotic poems, which were not published until after the war. Among these was Krvava bajka ('A Fairy Tale') , which is about the Wehrmacht's killing of schoolchildren in the Kragujevac massacre. It was recited extensively in post-war commemorative ceremonies and became one of the best known Serbian-language poems.

Desanka Maksimović (born 1898, Valjevo, Serbia - died 1993) was a Serbian poet, writer and translator. Her first works were published in the literary journal Misao in 1920, while she was studying at the University of Belgrade. Within a few years, her poems appeared in the Srpski knjizevni glasnik, Belgrade's most influential literary publication. (from Wikipedia)