Ranko Marinković

Birthday: February 22, 1913

Death: January 28, 2001

Ranko Marinković (22 February 1913 – 28 January 2001) was a Croatian and Yugoslav novelist and dramatist. Born in Komiža on the island of Vis, then a part of Austria-Hungary, Marinković's childhood was marked by World War I. He later earned a degree in philosophy at the University of Zagreb. In the 1930s, he began to make his name in Zagreb literary circles with his plays and stories. His best known works are Glorija (1955), a play in which he criticised the Catholic Church, and Kiklop (1965), a semi-autobiographical novel in which he describes the gloomy atmosphere among Zagreb intellectuals before the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia. Kiklop was adapted into a 1982 movie directed by Antun Vrdoljak. In a 2010 Jutarnji list poll conducted among 41 scholars, writers, and public figures, Kiklop was chosen as the all-time best Croatian novel.