Josip Vandot
| Josip Vandot | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born |
15 January 1884 Kranjska Gora, Carniola, Austria-Hungary |
| Died |
11 July 1944 (aged 60) Trnjanski Kuti, Independent State of Croatia |
| Occupation | Writer, poet |
| Nationality | Slovene |
Josip Vandot (15 January 1884 – 11 July 1944) was a Slovene writer and poet who wrote mainly for young readers.
Biography
Vandot was born in Kranjska Gora in Upper Carniola, then part of Austria-Hungary, now in Slovenia. Under the interwar Kingdom of Yugoslavia, 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 in 1944.[1] 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 and Julian Alps. He wrote three books with Kekec as the main character:
- Kekec na hudi poti (Kekec on the Hard Path, 1918)
- Kekec na volčji sledi (Kekec on the Wolf Trail, 1922)
- Kekec nad samotnim breznom (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:
- Kekec (1951)[2]
- Srečno, Kekec (1963)[3] (Good Luck, Kekec) – the first Slovene colour film
- Kekčeve ukane (1968)[4] (Kekec's Wiles)
References
External links
Media related to Josip Vandot at Wikimedia Commons- Josip Vandot at Find a Grave