Vojin Jeli\u0107 was born on 27 November 1921 in Knin. He completed his high school education in \u0160ibenik and studied in Prague, Belgrade and Zagreb where he graduated at the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry.\u00a0 Jeli\u0107 belongs to a group of prominent storytellers of post-war Yugoslav prose. In his novels and stories he portrayed rural life of the people from the Dalmatian hinterland. In almost every of his works, Jeli\u0107 quoted sayings from the heritage and culture of Croatian Serbs, their legends, myths and customs, which are passed from one generation to another, in the hope that this will save them from disappearing. The psychological and social multi-faceted character of his stories is based on true events and part of his literary opus is dedicated to Chetniks and Ustasha, which made him a target of the then social political elite.<\/p>\n
He was a prolific writer with authentic artistic expression. His opus includes 23 literary works. The first of his collections of stories called \u0110uka’s \u0111erdan was followed by a novel from 1953, \u00a0An\u0111eli lijepo pjevaju (Angels Sing Beautifully), and a collection of novellas: Ljudi kamenjara (People of Rocky Counrty), Kirvaj, Limeni pijetao (Tin Rooster), Do\u017eivotnigre\u0161nici (LIfetime Sinners) and Gorki bajami (Bitter Almonds).\u00a0 He considered his last book, Pogledaj svoje ruke (Look at your hands), written in 1966, as his own amulet, because this is where he included all the memories he had, which were connected to his birthplace of Knin.<\/p>\n
At the beginning of the last war, his works were removed from textbooks and school reading in Croatia. When Nedjeljko Mihanovi\u0107, who later became Speaker of Parliament, singled him out and accused him for all that his fellow members of the same nationality did in the war, Jeli\u0107 withdrew from public and cultural life of Croatia.<\/p>\n
Jeli\u0107 worked as a journalist and as a teacher, and for a long time he was the secretary of the Serb cultural society Prosvjeta. He died in Zagreb on 19 December 2004.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In almost every of his works, Jeli\u0107 quoted sayings from the heritage and culture of Croatian Serbs, their legends, myths and customs, which are passed from one generation to another, in the hope that this will save them from disappearing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1236,"template":"","pozicija":[],"class_list":["post-1235","znameniti-srbi","type-znameniti-srbi","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n