Josip Vidmar

Josip Vidmar (; October 14, 1895 – April 11, 1992) was a notable Slovenian literary critic, essayist, and politician. From 1944 to 1946 he was speaker of the Slovenian People's Liberation Council (Slovenian Parliament). From 1952 to 1976 was president of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and from 1950 to 1964 he was the head of the academy's Institute of Literatures.

Life Vidmar was born in Ljubljana, in a progressive middle-class family. Josip had an older brother, Milan Vidmar, a notable engineer, chess player and writer. Their sister Meta Vidmar studied with the famous Mary Wigman in Dresden and upon returning to Ljubljana in 1930 established the first school of modern dance in Slovenia. He completed gymnasium school in Ljubljana and studied at the Czech Technical University in Prague. A memorial now stands in front of the house. Vidmar served as the formal chairman of the organization until the end of the war.

Communist period Vidmar was president of the Yugoslav Federal Chamber of Peoples (later the Chamber of Republics and Provinces). He was close friend of the Croatian writer Miroslav Krleža. He was very influential in Slovenia from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s in the cultural policies of the Titoist regime.

Josip Vidmar was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Novi Sad, Serbia.

He died in Ljubljana.

Work

Translations Vidmar translated works from Russian, French, Italian, German, Czech, Croatian, and Serbian into Slovenе, mostly plays; works of dramatists: Aleksey Arbuzov, Gogol, Griboyedov, Krleža, Molière, Nušić, Pushkin, Aleksey Tolstoy and other authors.

Essay books Literarne kritike Meditacije Polemike Dnevniki Obrazi