Ponican, Ján

(pen name Rob). Born June 15, 1902, in Očová. Slovak writer. Member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia since 1929.

Ponič an, who began publishing in 1920, graduated from the law faculty of the University of Prague in 1927. His poetry, published in such collections as Dismantling (1929), Angara (1934), and The Earth’s Poles (1937), reflected the growth of the revolutionary spirit among the working masses and influenced the development of socialist realism in Slovakia. Other works by Ponič an include the drama Jánoŝ ík (1941), the narrative poem Strange Janko (1941), the cycle Uprising (1946), and the collections The Storm Does Not Let Up (1958) and Depths and Distances (1973). He wrote such sociopolitical novels as The Machines Began Working (1935) and The Spider Web (1945). Poničan has also translated the poetry of such writers as V. V. Mayakovsky and S. A. Esenin.