2015International Day of the Mother Tongue - Ilija Jakovljevic - Set

Writer, advocate, editor and journalist Ilija Jakovljević was born in Mostar on October 21rst 1898. He went to elementary school and high school in Mostar, and then finished seventh and eighth grade of high school in Sarajevo and then University of Law in Zagreb where he achieves his PhD and runs his own law office.
His literary, social and political views have grown from a christian sense for life. He considered that literature should be a unity of truth, humanity and beauty, but artistic freedom must not be influenced by ideological tendencies. He had published in many theoretical articles on literature his many opinions about the meaning and tasks of literature and writers. He collaborates with many newspapers and journals, he is the editor of the journal “Suvremenik” and the president of the Croatian Writer's Society. During his lifetime two of his story-tales' collections were published "Zavičaj" and "Hercegovke", two novels "Na raskrsnici" and "U mraku" and two collections of lyrics "Otrov uspomena" and "Lirika nevremena". A book of memoirs "Konclogor na Savi" was published in 1999.
In the Ustasha concentration camp in Stara Gradiška he was captivated from October 13th up to December 23rd 1942., and leaves for the Partisans in September 21rst 1944. After the war he continues his business at law only to be arrested in 1948. He died in Zagreb, in prison on October 28th 1948, and the details about his death have not been exposed up until this day. (Željka Šaravanja)