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Branko Ćopić (1915–1984) was one of the most prolific and most translated Yugoslav writers. He was a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Thus, Ćopić’s literary legacy is kept at SANU. His most well-known works are, ‘Doživljaji Nikoletine Bursaća’ [The Adventures of Nikoletina Bursać, 1955], ‘Orlovi rano lete’ [Eagles Fly Early, 1957], ‘Gluvi barut’ [Deaf Gunpowder, 1957], ‘Bašta sljezove boje’ [The Marshmallow-coloured Garden, 1970]. He was the recipient of the most important literary awards in socialist Yugoslavia: the NIN Prize (1958), the Sedmojulska Prize (1969), the AVNOJ Award (1970), and the Njegoš Award (1972).

Branko Ćopić was born in Hašani, Bosnia. He graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade in 1940. During the Second World War, he joined the partisans. He worked as a war correspondent, and after the war was the editor of several children’s papers in Belgrade. At this time, he began to write professionally, and his works are dominated by the theme of the national liberation struggle. At the beginning of the 1950s, Ćopić began to write satirical columns for Belgrade journals and precisely this was to cause him the biggest problems. The first such story, ‘Jeretičke priče’ [Heretical Tales], triggered one of the biggest scandals in post-war Yugoslav literature (see more under featured item).

Despite this, Ćopić believed that free writers in free countries could submit anyone to the ‘whip of satire’ and that this was, in a way, their duty. He criticized the ‘servile mentality’ that he linked to former times, the era of Ottoman rule (R. Petković, 2000, p. 16). He ascribed an emancipatory role to satire, as apt for the broad masses as for the ruling class. Ćopić’s reputation suffered to a certain extent due to his provisional opposition to the authorities, but given his undisputed contribution to the liberation struggle he was not seriously hindered in his work, though he remained under constant surveillance by state security.

Ćopić continued to write satirical columns and after the problems with ‘Jeretičke priče’ [Heretical Tales], his novel ‘Gluvi barut’ [Deaf Gunpowder] (1957) – in which he criticized revolutionary dogmatism and the ‘red terror’ during the Second World War – also attracted considerable attention, though only after the interpretations given to it abroad in the following years. After an interview with a Soviet newspaper in 1960 in which he talked about ‘Gluvi barut’ [Deaf Gunpowder] as well as the state of Yugoslav literature, he was expelled from the party. In the interview, he put forward the opinion that Yugoslav literature was ‘slave to the West’, which was used as the main charge against him. Given that at the time Yugoslavia and the USSR were not enjoying the best of relations, Ćopić’s statement was experienced as a provocation (R. Petković, 2000, p. 89–90).

Notwithstanding his expulsion, he continued to write freely, to publish and, even more significantly, to receive literary awards. He was readmitted to the party in 1970. Ćopić described his attitude towards the party as follows, 'I know it is a failing of mine that I am relatively anarchistic, muddled and reckless, and am not fond of discipline. I conduct myself towards the party like towards a not very strict patron, who overlooks a fair amount, binding me all the more to serve the homeland in the literary field, so that I may repay the party somewhat for its concern, help and noble attention, which grant me confidence and zeal in work (R. Petković, 2000, Sudanije Branku Ćopiću [The Show Trial on Branko Ćopić], p. 10).

Branko Ćopić committed suicide on 26 March 1984 by jumping from the Bridge of Brotherhood and Unity in Belgrade.

Šimun Šito Ćorić is a Croatian theologian, writer and psychologist, an ordained priest of the Franciscan Order. Born in Paoča in 1949 near Međugorje (Bosnia-Herzegovina), he earned a degree in philosophy in Sarajevo in 1973, and then in theology in Lucerne (Switzerland) in 1975. He earned a psychology degree from Columbia University in 1982, and then a PhD in clinical psychology at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (University of Zagreb) in 1988. Some of his books and articles have been translated into English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and other languages. He is a professor of psychology at the University of Mostar, University of Zagreb and University of Osijek, and has lectured for eight years at the University of Zadar. From 1994 to 2005. he served as president of the Croatian World Congress (HSK), the largest Croatian international organisation. He is the national coordinator of the Croatian Catholic Mission in Switzerland. Under the pseudonym Boris Katich, he published the book So Speak Croatian Dissidents in 1983, with which he attempted to warn the world public about the unenviable position of Croatia in Yugoslavia, and especially the unfortunate status of Croatian dissidents and oppositionists persecuted and imprisoned in Yugoslavia.

Jan Čep was a Czech prose writer, essayist and translator. He was born on December 31^st, 1902 in Myšlichovice (now Haňovice - Myslechovice near Litovel), to a family of peasants as the oldest of ten siblings. Jan Čep attended a general school in Cholina, then studied high school in Litovel where he graduated in 1922. At that time he published his first work in the Moravskoslezské Noviny. He studied Czech, English and French at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague. He did not finish his studies, after the first state examination he left for the publishing house, the Old Empire (Stará říše), influenced by Josef Florina, where he helped him for less than a year in publishing. He then lived as a translator and professional writer and worked for the Melantrich and Symposion publishers. Since 1923, he often took study trips to England, Spain, Yugoslavia, but mainly in France. During the war he lived in his birthplace, wrote short stories and maintained close contact with the Dominican spiritual centre in Olomouc. After the war he worked for a publishing house in Vyšehrad. After February 1948 he left Czechoslovakia and lived in Paris. From 1951 to 1955 he worked as a cultural editor of the Czechoslovak editorial office of Radio Free Europe in Munich, later acting as the Parisian cultural correspondent. Through his radio reflections, he tried to confront communist power and spiritually empower people "at home". Outside of his homeland he did not feel happy because he had a very strong relationship with Czechoslovakia. Several times, he seriously thought about becoming a priest, but in 1954 he married Charles Du Bose's daughter, a French literary critic. In 1962 Pope John XXIII gave him the papal Order of Saint Silvester for his lifetime work. He died after suffering a stroke on January 25^th, 1974 in Paris.