Josip Vandot (15 January 1884 – 11 July 1944) was a Slovene writer and poet who wrote mainly for young readers.

Josip Vandot
Born(1884-01-15)15 January 1884
Kranjska Gora, Carniola, Austria-Hungary
Died11 July 1944(1944-07-11) (aged 60)
Trnjanski Kuti, Independent State of Croatia
OccupationWriter, poet
NationalitySlovene

Biography edit

 
Josip Vandot Street, Kranjska Gora

Vandot was born in Kranjska Gora in Upper Carniola, then part of Austria-Hungary, now in Slovenia. Under the interwar Kingdom of Yugoslavia, he was employed as a railway official in Maribor. In 1941, after the area was annexed by Germany, Vandot was deported to Croatia. He was killed in the Allied bombing of Slavonski Brod in 1944.[1] A street is now named for him in Kranjska Gora.

Work edit

Vandot is best known for the creation of the character Kekec, a brave and clever shepherd boy from the highlands of his home region, the Karawanks and Julian Alps. He wrote three books with Kekec as the main character:

  • Kekec na hudi poti (Kekec on the Hard Path, 1918)
  • Kekec na volčji sledi (Kekec on the Wolf Trail, 1922)
  • Kekec nad samotnim breznom (Kekec Above the Lonely Abyss, 1924)

The Kekec books were adapted into three films about the character, although only the first was a direct adaptation of the first book:

References edit

  1. ^ Helga Glušič, Sto Slovenskih Pripovednikov (Ljubljana: Prešernova družba, 1996) ISBN 961-6186-21-3
  2. ^ *Kekec at IMDb  
  3. ^ *Srečno, Kekec at IMDb  
  4. ^ *Kekčeve ukane at IMDb  

External links edit