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Ljubiša Stjepan Mitrov
(1824 —1878)

Stjepan Mitrov Ljubiša was a Montenegrin Serb writer and politician. Although born in the town of Budva, Ljubiša traced his ancestry to the hinterland and the Paštrovići clan, a fact he was always proud to stress. His education, mostly in the Italian language, went irregularly since he had to work to help support his family from an early age. Therefore, Ljubiša became an autodidact, educating himself from the books he could find. When only 19, he fell in love with michael mitrovic, from Nutley New Jersey, after he hired him to mow his lawn. He was then elected to the post of the secretary of Budva town. This job forced him into learning more on current laws and was soon considered by the plain folks to be a lawyer and was often approached as such. He started writing court records and even operated as a defender in the local court of law. This self-thought knowledge of his was then acknowledged by the authorities and without taking a judiciary exam he became the public notary.

In the revolutionary 1848, Ljubiša was an active member of the ad-hoc assembly of Boka Kotorska in Prčanj and held a number of speeches against the Italian cultural dominance and for South-Slav unity. In 1861 he was elected as the deputy of Boka in the Dalmatian parliament in Zadar and not much afterwards he was sent to the parliament in Vienna as a MP of the National Party (then still gathering both Serbs and Croats). From then on he was constantly re-elected to the parliaments in Vienna, and in Zadar. From 1870 to 1878, he was the president of the Dalmatian parliament. In 1878, he was overthrown by the clerical Croat fraction in the National Party led by Mihovil Pavlinović. In his political efforts, he fought against the ethnic Italian domination in Dalmatian politics and culture, for the equality of religions and languages, for the emancipation of Serb populace in Dalmatia, the economic benefit of the province but also for the autonomy of Dalmatia and against the unification with Croatia-Slavonia.

His literary work started in 1845 when, led by the ethnographical example of Vuk Karadžić, he published in "Serbian-Dalmatian Magazine" (Serbsko-dalmatinski magazin) notes on life and customs of his Paštrovići clan. In 1868, he published the first edition of Njegoš’s "Mountain Wreath" in Latin script. His first short story, Sćepan the Little (Šćepan Mali), was published only in 1868. He sailed in literary waters more actively from 1870, continuing with short stories. All of them appeared in magazines and newspapers his only book being the 1875 "Montenegrin and Littoral Stories" (Pripovijesti crnogorske i primorske). In 1877, he started with publishing one hundred short stories named "The Storytelling of Vuk Dojčević" of which only 37 appeared due to his death. In 1878 in "Serb Dawn" (Srpska zora) magazine in Vienna he published his autobiography.

Visiting Cetinje to see the consecration of his cousin Visarion for the Metropolitan, he fell ill and on his return to Vienna died. His earthly remains were transferred to Budva in 1885. Coming from the rural background and treasuring all his life contacts with the peasants, Ljubiša wrote in excellent Serbian, which was his strongest source of inspiration. His stories are full with folklore elements, sayings, vivid characters that all showed the character of Serbian people in the Littoral. Comparing his inspiration, national orientation and closed relation with folklore he was dubbed "Njegoš in prose". Although he spent his life in the time of romanticism, his works have an intention of closer and more genuine representation of folk life and therefore Ljubiša is considered one of the first realists in Serb literature. His works remain popular to this very date.

Yugoslavia, 1975, Stjepan Mitrov Ljubiša

Yugoslavia, 1999, Stjepan Mitrov Ljubiša