Edvard Kocbek

Infobox Writer
name = Edvard Kocbek
birthdate = birth date|1904|09|27
birthplace = Sveti Jurij ob Ščavnici, Duchy of Styria, Austria-Hungary (now in Slovenia)
deathdate = death date and age|1981|11|03|1904|09|27
deathplace = Ljubljana, Slovenia, Yugoslavia
occupation = poet, writer, politician, essayist, translator
period =
genre =
notableworks =
children = Matjaž Kocbek, Jurij Kocbek
influences = France Prešeren · Ivan Cankar · Janez Evangelist Krek · Romano Guardini · Emmanuel Mounier · Pierre Teilhard de Chardin · Kierkegaard · Jean Paul Sartre · Paul Claudel · André Malraux · Karl Marx · Martin Heidegger
influenced = Boris Pahor · Alojz Rebula · Jože Javoršek · Vekoslav Grmič · Heinrich Böll · Anton Trstenjak · Taras Kermauner · Dominik Smole · Marjan Rožanc · Viktor Blažič · Aleš Debeljak · Tomaž Šalamun · Tine Hribar · Spomenka Hribar · Aleš Šteger · Dane Zajc · Jože Snoj · Drago Jančar · Alojz Ihan

Edvard Kocbek (27 September 1904, Sveti Jurij ob Ščavnici, Duchy of Styria, now Slovenia - 3 November 1981, Ljubljana) was a Slovenian poet, writer, essayist, translator and political activist.

He was born in Austria-Hungary. After school he went to a Catholic seminary in Maribor for two years. He then went on to study at the University of Ljubljana. He started to write while at university. After trips to Berlin and France he published his first book, "Zemlja" (Soil, 1934). Due to a dispute over his 1951 book "Strah in pogum" (Fear and Courage), he was forcibly retired by Yugoslavia's communist regime in 1952 and placed under surveillance until the end of his life.

Works

* "Zemlja " ("Soil"; Ljubljana, 1934);
* "Groza" ("Dread"; Ljubljana: Slovenska matica, 1963);
* "Poročilo" ("Report"; Maribor: Zalozba Obzorja, 1969);
* "Zbrane pesmi" ("Selected Poems"; Ljubljana: Cankarjeva zalozba, 1977).