The directory «Plots»

Adamič Louis
(1899—1951)

23 March 1898 a third child was born to peasant parents at the Praproče castle near Grosuplje. Lojz received his education in Grosuplje and Ljubljana. It was a time of student demonstrations. The Austrian army shot Rudolf Lunder and Ivan Adamič, his relative. When Lojz was expelled from school at the age of fifteen, he emigrated to the United States of America. He started as a worker at the newspaper Glas naroda (The Voice of People) and soon rose to be a reporter. He spent World War I as a volunteer in the American army in Europe. After the war he travelled around the United States of America and the Far East. He attracted a lot of public attention with his book Dynamite (1931) which is still considered to be a textbook of the class fights in the USA. The next year he published the book Laughing in the Jungle and was a awarded a Guggenheim prize for it. Thus Louis Adamič won recognition in the USA as a writer, editor, translator and a versatile politically engaged and publicly active person. His work, writings about the problems of the time in America and in Slovenia, and particularly his support of the Yugoslav partisan movement brought him many new friends and dangerous opponents.

He returned to his old homeland twice. In 1932 Adamič became acquainted with the writers and progressive movement in Slovenia and proceeded against King Alexander's dictatorial regime with his book Native's return. The book was prohibited in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia immediately after its publication in 1934. During World War II he interceded as the honorary president of the Slovene-American National Council (SANS) with the American administration and President Roosevelt for the Slovene National Liberation Struggle. After the war, in 1949, he visited his homeland again. This time to find out more about the reality of the new Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia. The fruit of his research work was a book The Eagle and the Roots. It was because of this book that he was most likely shot by his enemies on 4 September 1951. The book was published in the USA posthumously in 1952. In the Slovene language, the book entitled Orel in korenine in the Slovene translation appeared only in 1970, eighteen years after the publication of the English original. Adamič's objective writing did not suit the purposes of authority expecting praises.

His work has been translated into several other languages. The centenary of his birth will be commemorated by the publication of three Adamič's books in the Japanese language: Laughing in the Jungle, Lukas, King of Balucas and Struggle (1935). The French translation of Laughing in the Jungle (Le rire dans la jungle) is still waiting for a publisher.

Slovenia, 1998, Louis Adamic

Slovenia, 1998.03.25, Grosuplje. Louis Adamic

Slovenia, 1998.03.25, Lubljana. Louis Adamic