Josip Vandot (15 January 1884 – 11 July 1944) was a Slovene writer and poet who wrote mainly for young readers.

Biography

Josip Vandot Street, Kranjska Gora, Slovenia

Vandot was born in

Kranjska Gora Kranjska Gora (; german: Kronau) is a town in northwestern Slovenia, on the Sava Dolinka River in the Upper Carniola region, close to the Austrian and Italian borders. It is the seat of the Municipality of Kranjska Gora. Name Kranjska Gora wa ...

Upper Carniola Upper Carniola ( sl, Gorenjska; it, Alta Carniola; german: Oberkrain) is a traditional region of Slovenia, the northern mountainous part of the larger Carniola region. The centre of the region is Kranj, while other urban centers include Jeseni ...

, then part of

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

, now in

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

. Under the interwar

Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија; sl, Kraljevina Jugoslavija) was a state in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 ...

, he was employed as a railway official in Maribor. In 1941, after the area was annexed by Germany, Vandot was deported to Croatia. He was killed in the Allied bombing of

Slavonski Brod Slavonski Brod (), commonly shortened to simply Brod, is a city in eastern Croatia, near the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Being one of the principal cities in the historical regions of Slavonia and Posavina, Slavonski Brod was the 7th large ...

in 1944. A street is now named for him in Kranjska Gora.

Work

Vandot is best known for the creation of the character Kekec, a brave and clever shepherd boy from the highlands of his home region, the

Karawanks The Karawanks or Karavankas or Karavanks ( sl, Karavanke; german: Karawanken, ) are a mountain range of the Southern Limestone Alps on the border between Slovenia to the south and Austria to the north. With a total length of in an east–west dir ...

and

Julian Alps The Julian Alps ( sl, Julijske Alpe, it, Alpi Giulie, , ) are a mountain range of the Southern Limestone Alps that stretch from northeastern Italy to Slovenia, where they rise to 2,864 m at Mount Triglav, the highest peak in Slovenia. A large p ...

. He wrote three books with Kekec as the main character: * (Kekec on the Hard Path, 1918) * (Kekec on the Wolf Trail, 1922) * (Kekec Above the Lonely Abyss, 1924) The Kekec books were adapted into three films about the character, although only the first was a direct adaptation of the first book: * (1951) * (1963) (Good Luck, Kekec) – the first Slovene colour film * (1968)* (Kekec's Wiles)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vandot, Josip 1884 births 1944 deaths Slovenian poets Slovenian male poets People from Kranjska Gora Slovenian civilians killed in World War II 20th-century poets Deaths by airstrike during World War II