Velimir Deželić-ml.

Velimir Deželić Jr. (Zagreb, 28. IV. 1895 – Zagreb, 20. V. 1976) was a Croatian writer, publicist, translator and cultural activist, son of Velimir Deželić Sr.. From his youth he was associated with the printing and magazine industry of Zagreb: he finished high school in Zagreb, studied law and philosophy, but public and publishing work led him to journalism, editorial work and management of cultural institutions. He was a collaborator and editor in newspapers and magazines of Catholic and civic orientation (Hrvatska straža, Hrvatska smotra, Luč, Hrvatska revija, Kalendar Narodne zaštite), later also in emigrant newspapers. He worked as a playwright and intendant in theaters, participated in organizing musical and stage life, edited libraries and radio broadcasts about culture. He also worked as a lecturer and a promoter of reading, especially among young people.

Deželić Jr. writes medium-length prose, essays, memoirs and travelogues, theater reviews, and popular cultural-historical syntheses. In prose, he is interested in bourgeois Zagreb and the "little history" of individuals at the crossroads of social changes; his style is clear, conversational, with an educational note inherited from family tradition. As an essayist, he cultivates thematic cycles on theater, music, books, and religious-moral issues of everyday life. He was a diligent translator from German, Italian, and French (historical and religious authors, classical essays), and he also edited collections and memorials of cultural associations.

Bibliography (selection):

• Narrative and memoir prose: books of short stories and memories about the people and customs of Zagreb; portraits of musicians, actors, and writers; travelogues from the Central European circle.
• Cultural-historical and religious books: popular accounts of national and church history, biographies of saints and notables, essays on social morality and family.
• Theatre journalism: criticism and reviews, dramaturgical notes, contributions on theatre organisation and repertoire policy.
• Translations: selected essays and biographies, theological and spiritual literature, classical memoirs.
• Editorial and organisational work: he led or co-edited several libraries of "books for the people", worked in the editorial offices of the Review and Calendar, prepared thematic issues dedicated to Croatian cities, artists and anniversaries. He participated in the work of cultural societies (Matica hrvatska, societies of church and lay culture), and was a link between the Catholic cultural circle and the wider public.

Deželić Jr. is today read as a reliable witness of Zagreb's civic culture of the first half of the 20th century. He is not an avant-garde stylist, but he is a valuable mediator: he combines readability, documentary inclination and pedagogical nerve. His prose and essays are appreciated for their warm portraits, preserving the memory of the city and promoting literature, theatre and music in the popular register. In the original cultural field, he was a “worker” who maintained a network of magazines, forums and libraries — an important, if often silent, infrastructure of Croatian interwar and postwar culture.

Legacy: manuscripts, correspondence and newspaper clippings are stored in Zagreb collections (HAZU, NSK, theatre archives). His records of the city and the stage are still a valuable source for cultural historians today, especially for studies of civic Zagreb, theatre and the Catholic lay movement of the 20th century.