Andrić, Ivo

Andrić, Ivo (1892-1975), Serbian novelist, short story writer, and Nobel laureate, born in Doc, near Travnik, Bosnia (then part of Austria-Hungary). He was educated at the universities in Zagreb, Kraków, Vienna, and Graz. Before World War I he was a member of a revolutionary nationalist movement in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Because of his political activities, Andrić was interned by the Austrian government during World War I. Under the newly formed kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later the kingdom of Yugoslavia), Andrić held a number of diplomatic posts, including that of ambassador to Germany. He resigned his ambassadorship in 1941 and spent World War II in Belgrade. The material for his works was drawn from the history and life of his native Bosnia. He established his literary reputation with Ex Ponto (1918), a lyrical prose work written during his imprisonment by the Austro-Hungarian authorities for so-called nationalist political activities in World War I. Andrić wrote in Serbian, and his restrained use of language heightens the epic power of his novels. Of his works translated into English the best known are the following: The Bridge on the Drina (1945; trans. 1959), The Woman from Sarajevo (1945; trans. 1965), and The Vizier's Elephant (1948; trans. 1962). He received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1961.