Copic, Branko

Born Jan. 1, 1915, in Hašani, Bosnia. Serbian writer. Member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (1967) and the Academy of Sciences of Bosnia and Hercegovina (1973). Participant in the National Liberation War in Yugoslavia of 1941–45.

Ćopić graduated from the philosophy faculty of the University of Belgrade. He began publishing in 1929. His mastery of the realistic short story was evident even in such early collections At the Grmec (1938). The warm and sincere humor that characterizes this collection was also typical of Ćopić’s later work.

Ćopić’s poems and short stories from the war years, including the collection The Fiery Birth of the Homeland (1944), enjoyed wide popularity. He describes the antifascist struggle of the Yugoslav peoples in the novels Breakthrough (1952; Russian translation, 1959), The Hidden Gunpowder (1957), and The Daredevils at Bihać (1975) and in such short-story collections as Events from the Life of Nikoletina Bursac (1956; Russian translation, 1958) and The Hollyhock Garden (1970). In the novels Do Not Grieve, Bronze Guard (1958) and The Eighth Attack (1964), Ćopić deals with important problems of postwar Yugoslav life. He is also the author of many books for children.

In 1972, Ćopić was awarded the Antifascist National-liberation Council of Yugoslavia Prize and the Njegoš Prize.