Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić

Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić (Ogulin, April 18, 1874 – Zagreb, September 21, 1938) is one of the most significant Croatian female writers and a classic author of children's literature. She came from the distinguished Mažuranić family: her father was the lawyer, historian, and writer Vladimir Mažuranić, and her grandfather was the Croatian Ban and poet Ivan Mažuranić. She received most of her education privately and was fluent in several European languages. After marrying Vatroslav Brlić in 1892, she moved to Slavonski Brod, where a significant part of her literary body of work was created.

She made her literary debut with the collection of stories and poems for children Valjani i nevaljani (1902), followed by Škola i praznici (1905) and the poetry collection Slike (1912). She achieved great literary success with the novel Čudnovate zgode šegrta Hlapića (1913), which is considered the first Croatian children's novel and one of the foundational works of Croatian children's literature.

The pinnacle of her creative work is Priče iz davnine (1916), a collection of eight fairy tales inspired by Slavic mythology, folklore, and the author's exceptional storytelling imagination. In stories such as "Stribor's Forest," "Regoč," "How Potjeh Sought the Truth," and "Fisherman Plunk and His Wife," she connects the realm of fantasy with universal themes of good and evil, love, self-sacrifice, family, and moral choice.

She also wrote essays, fables, poems, articles, and autobiographical accounts. Notable among her other works are A Book for Youth (1923), A Children's Reader on Health (1927), and the unfinished historical novel Jaša Dalmatin, Viceroy of Gujarat (1937). Her Fables and Fairy Tales were published posthumously.

The works of Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić have been translated into numerous languages, and thanks to her storytelling mastery in the realm of fairy tales, she early on earned the title of the "Croatian Andersen." She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and in 1937, she became the first woman elected as a corresponding member of JAZU—today known as the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.