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France Bevk | |
|---|---|
 France Bevk in 1953 | |
| Born | (1890-09-17)17 September 1890[1] |
| Died | 17 September 1970(1970-09-17) (aged 80)[1] |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | Slovene |
| Literary movement | Expressionism,social realism |
| Notable works | The Vicar Martin Čedermac |
| Notable awards | Prešeren Award |
France Bevk (pronunciationⓘ) (17 September 1890 – 17 September 1970) was aSlovene writer, poet and translator. He also wrote under the pseudonymPavle Sedmak.
Bevk was born in the mountain village ofZakojca (Coizza during Italian rule, now part of theMunicipality of Cerkno) in theCounty of Gorizia and Gradisca of what was then theAustro-Hungarian Empire, now inSlovenia.[1] He was the oldest of eight children born to the tenant farmer and shoemaker Ivan Bevk and his wife Katarina (née Čufer).[2]
Bevk attended school inBukovo until 1904,[2] and then inKranj (1905),Koper (1908), andGorizia (1909), and became a teacher in theSlovene Littoral.[1] His first teaching position was in the village ofOrehek.[2] During theFirst World War he was a soldier on theEastern Front and for a while at amilitary school inHungary.
After the war he worked for various newspapers inLjubljana. In 1920 he moved toGorizia dedicating himself to cultural and political activism in theSlovene Littoral, then underItalian rule. He was frequently prosecuted byItalian Fascist authorities and interned for his activities.[1] In 1935 he had to leave theJulian March and moved to Ljubljana, in theKingdom of Yugoslavia. There, he came in contact with the vibrant cultural life of the Slovenian capital, becoming friends with figures such as the painterZoran Mušič, writerVladimir Bartol, political activist and authorLavo Čermelj, literary criticJosip Vidmar and art historianFrance Stele.
After theAxisinvasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, he was imprisoned by the Italian occupation authorities due to his publicAnti-Fascist stance. In 1943, he escaped from prison and joined theSlovene Partisans. After the end ofWorld War II, he moved toTrieste and later back to Ljubljana. In 1953 he became a member of theSlovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.[3] He received thePrešeren Award, the most prestigious award for artistic achievements in Slovenia, twice, in 1949 and in 1954. He died in Ljubljana on his 80th birthday.
Bevk started writing at the age of sixteen with encouragement from the influentialfeminist editorZofka Kveder. In his early poems, Bevk was influenced by the vitalist poetry ofOton Župančič andMaurice Maeterlinck. After the experience ofWorld War I, he came under the influence of Christianexpressionism which represented a strong literary and artistic current in interwar Slovenia. Some of its most talented representatives, such as the poetJoža Lovrenčič andIvan Pregelj, came from Bevk's native region ofGoriška. At first, he followed their examples, but later moved tosocial realism. He became known in the 1930s with his novels describing the struggle of theSlovene people from theJulian March to maintain their identity against theFascist Italianization.[1] His best-known work was the novelKaplan Martin Čedermac (The Vicar Martin Čedermac), in which he described the inner struggles of a Roman Catholic priest in the westernmost Slovene ethnic region known asVenetian Slovenia. The novel was published under a pseudonym by the publishing houseSlovenska matica in 1938 and soon became a best-seller. The termČedermac is still used in Slovene to refer to the Roman Catholic clergy in the Slovene Littoral that struggled to defend the Slovene identity of their flock under the ItalianFascist regime. His realist literature pay attention to topics of land ownership, arranged marriage, alcoholism and conservativism in rural settings.[1]
Later in his life, Bevk devoted himself largely to children's literature. He was a very prolific author: when a complete bibliography was made on the occasion of his 70th birthday, it was determined that Bevk had written over 100 books.[4]
Although Bevk is still revered as the author of the popular novelThe Vicar Martin Čedermac, he is mostly remembered as an author of children's literature. The regional library inNova Gorica is named after him, as well as the central square in the town.
| Settlements | Administrative seat:Cerkno
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