Nikola Andrić

Nikola Andrić (5 July 1867 – 7 April 1942) was a Croatian writer, philologist, and translator.

Biography Andrić was born in Vukovar in 1867. After obtaining a degree in Romance and Slavic studies in Vienna and Paris, he received his PhD in 1897 in Vienna. At the invitation of Stjepan Miletić, he became a dramaturge at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb (1894–1898, 1901–1907). In 1898, together with Miletić he founded the Acting School, where he taught for many years. He was one of the founders and the first manager of the National Theatre in Osijek in 1907.

In 1913, he started a popular publishing house Zabavna biblioteka ("Entertainment Library") and served as its editor-in-chief until his death. During that period, Zabavna biblioteka published more than 600 volumes of mostly translated novels, but also domestic fiction. It had a major role in shaping the taste of domestic readership. Of 603 works published by Zabavna biblioteka he personally translated more than 60 novels and short stories, as well as the same number of dramas – mostly from French, German and Russian.

Critics have called Andrić a polyglot and erudite whose literary-historical and essayistic work surpassed his fictional works.

Works Prijevodna beletristika u Srba od godine 1777–1847, Zagreb, 1892 U vagonu (under a pseudonym Miloje Fruškogorac), Zemun, 1894 Spomen-knjiga Hrvatskoga zemaljskog kazališta Zagreb, 1895 Odgovor na odgovor Živanovića. Prilog konačnome sporazumu., Zagreb, 1899 Izvori starih kajkavskih drama, Rad JAZU, 1901, 146, pp. 1–77 Značenje Marka Marulića, Zagreb, 1901 Iz ratničke književnosti hrvatske, Zagreb, 1902 Život i književni rad Pavla Solarića, Rad JAZU, 1902, 150, pp. 103–194. Pod apsolutizmom, Zagreb, 1906 Branič jezika hrvatskoga, Zagreb, 1911 Od Balkana do Montblanca, 1–2, Zagreb, 1927 Šta je šta. Stvarni hrvatski rječnik u slikama (co-authored with Iso Velikanović), Zagreb, 1938