THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF THE AUTHOR MIROSLAV KRLEZA

Motif: Portrait of Miroslav Krleža The poet, playwright, novelist essay-writer, travel writer, encyclopaedist and journalist, Miroslav Krleža (born on July 7th 1893 in Zagreb, died on December 29th 1981, also in Zagreb) is a key figure on the threshold of contemporary Croatian literature, an all-round, dynamic artist who was well-known not only in Central Europe, but even further abroad, since his works were translated into many languages, even into Japanese. It would be impossible to list all of Krleža's literary works, since their bibliography - the first editions and revised editions - would take up at least fifteen pages. Among his books of poetry, the most significant is certainly "The Ballads of Petrica Kerempuh" (1936), written in the kajkavian dialect as a form of a protest that the adoption of the štokavian dialect as the standard (a hundred years ago) brought to an end centuries of kajkavian Croatian literature. Krleža reaches his crown achievement (apart from the grotesque "Kraljevo" - The Epiphany - and the anti-war drama "In the Camp") in the cycle "The Glembays", consisting of 11 prose texts and three plays: "The Glembays", "Agony" and "Leda". His most notable novel is "The Return of Filip Latinowicz", which has been translated into many languages, while the enigmatic "Banners" is a novel which he worked on until the end of his life. The stamp was printed in sheets of 20 pieces each. HPT issued a first day cover (FDC) and a commemorative sheet.