KRLEZA, MIROSLAV

born July 7, 1893, Zagreb, Croatia-Slavonia, Austria-Hungary [now in Croatia] died Dec. 29, 1981, Zagreb, Yugos. novelist and playwright who was a dominant figure in modern Croatian literature. Krleza trained for a military career but after World War I devoted himself to writing and founded a left-wing review in 1919. After World War II he was elected vice president of the Yugoslav Academy of Science and Art and later became director of the Croatian Institute of Lexicography and president of the Yugoslav Writers' Union. A man of vigorous and powerful intellect and wide learning, Krle za wrote with great intensity, fearlessly criticizing political and social injustices. Typical works are the dramatic trilogy Glembajevi (1932; The Glembaj Family), which is an indictment of the decadence of the Croatian bourgeoisie under the Austrian Empire; the novel Povratak Filipa Latinovica (1932; The Return of Philip Latinovicz, 1960); and works concerned with the past exploitation and sufferings of the Croatian peasantse.g., the stories in the collection Hrvatski bog Mars (1922; The Croatian God Mars) and the Balade Petrice Kerempuha (1936; Ballads of Petrica Kerempuh).