Joža Horvat

Josip "Joža" Horvat (10 March 1915 – 26 October 2012) was a Croatian writer. He was the author of many novels, short stories, dramas, screenplays, essays and radio dramas, translated into at least nine languages, including Russian, Chinese and Esperanto.^[3]

Joža Horvat
Horvat in 1997
Born	Josip Horvat (1915-03-10)10 March 1915 Kotoriba, Kingdom of Hungary, Austria-Hungary
Died	26 October 2012(2012-10-26) (aged 97) Zagreb, Republic of Croatia
Pen name	Joža
Occupation	Writer
Period	1935
Genre	novele
Notable works	Ciguli Miguli (1952) Mačak pod šljemom (1962) Besa–brodski dnevnik (1973) Operacija "Stonoga" (1982) Waitapu (1984) Svjedok prolaznosti (2005)
Notable awards	Vladimir Nazor Award for lifetime achievement in literature Order of Danica Hrvatska
Spouse	Renata Horvat (née Jesensky)^[1]
Children	Radovan–Mićo (d. 1973) Marko (d. 1975)^[2]
Relatives	Zlatko Horvat (brother), Helena Horvat, Diana Horvat (grandchildren)

Life and career

Horvat was born in Kotoriba, Međimurje, northern Croatia, at the time in Zala County in Hungary. During World War II he fought in Yugoslav Partisans, which later inspired the novel Mačak pod šljemom (Tomcat under a Helmet, 1962) which had a somewhat ironical view of the partisan movement, adapted both into a feature film and a miniseries. The screenplay Ciguli Miguli (1952), critical of bureaucracy, briefly brought him into disfavour with the Communist party authorities, on which occasion he turned to sailing.

In mid-1960s Horvat and his family sailed the world in the sailing yacht Besa, and his travel journal Besa–brodski dnevnik (Besa–Ship's Log, 1973) became a best-seller. The second trip around the world was marked by tragedy: Horvat’s older son, who stayed back, died in a traffic accident in 1973, and his younger son drowned in Venezuela in 1975.

After a period of deep crisis Horvat published two acclaimed novels inspired by these events, Operacija "Stonoga" (Operation "Centipede", 1982), about a search for a lost island in the Atlantic, and Waitapu (1984), about a Pacific Islander boy who decides to sail across a taboo line. His last work is a memoir titled Svjedok prolaznosti (A Witness to Impermanence, 2005).^[3][4][5][6]

Horvat attended the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb and served as a secretary of Matica hrvatska.^[3]

References

1. "Mačak iz autobiografije" [Tomcat of Autobiography] (in Croatian). Matica hrvatska. 2005. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
2. "Bolne uspomene našeg Vasca da Game" [Painful Memories of Our Vasco da Gama] (in Croatian). Jutarnji.hr. 2005. Archived from the original on 18 February 2013. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
3. (in Croatian). Croatian Writers Society. Archived from the original on 26 April 2012. Retrieved 7 December 2011.
4. [Presentation of the Novel "Svjetionik" by Joža Horvat] (in Croatian). 2000. Archived from the original on 14 April 2012. Retrieved 7 December 2011.
5. [Joža Horvat in Kotoriba] (in Croatian). 2004. Archived from the original on 14 April 2012. Retrieved 7 December 2011.
6. "Navtični Portret: Doživeti Barbo Jožo Horvata" [Nautical Portrait: To Experience Old Man Joža Horvat] (in Slovenian). Revija Kapital. Retrieved 7 December 2011.