Fran Levstik

Born Sept. 28, 1831, in the village of Spodnje-Retje; died Nov. 16, 1887, in Ljubljana. Slovene writer. Son of a peasant.

Levstik was a seminarian and worked as a tutor and a librarian. A major Slovene lyric poet, Levstik wrote lyrical epic poems in the spirit of folk songs, as well as ballads and satires. He wrote publicistic articles expounding realism in art. His novella Martin Krpan (1858) marked the beginning of Slovene classical prose. Levstik also wrote plays and translated G. R. Derzhavin, A. S. Pushkin, and Russian fairy tales.