Marija Jurić Zagorka


Marija Jurić, known by her pen name Zagorka, was a Croatian journalist, writer and women's rights activist. She was the first female journalist in Croatia and is among the most read Croatian writers.

Early life and education

Marija Jurić was born on 2 March 1873 in the village of Negovec in a family of Ivan Jurić and Josipa Domin. She had two brothers and a sister. Baptized in a Catholic church on 3 March 1873, she was given the baptismal name Mariana. She later spoke of her family as being wealthy but unhappy. She spent her childhood in Hrvatsko Zagorje on the Golubovec estate owned by Baron Geza Rauch which her father managed. She was educated by private tutors alongside baron Rauch's children. Zagorka attended elementary school in Varaždin were she stood out as very intelligent and talented, finishing all grades with the highest marks. Although her father wanted to send her to Switzerland to attend high school, which baron Rauch agreed to pay, her mother objected so she eventually attended an all-girls high school at the Convent of the Sisters of Mercy in Zagreb. At her mother's insistence and with her father's objection, Zagorka married Slovak-Hungarian railway officer Andrija Matraja, 17 years her senior, in an arranged marriage held at the end of 1891. She disapproved of her husband's chauvinism against Croats. The couple lived in Szombathely for three years, during which she suffered a mental breakdown, but they eventually divorced. She learned Telegraphy and Hungarian during the time she spent in Hungary which helped her later in her career as a journalist. After dramatically escaping her abusive husband in 1895, Zagorka at first lived with her uncle in Srijemska Mitrovica and afterwards in Zagreb. Matraja accused her of being mentally unstable so she was kept in an asylum for a period of time, but was eventually discharged when doctors realized that she was healthy. She managed to get a divorce with her father's help but was proclaimed guilty of marriage failure after her mother testified against her, so her former husband had no obligation to pay alimony or to return her personal belongings.

Journalist career

During high school, Zagorka edited her first newspaper - Samostanske novine . She had a single copy that she lent to other students. In 1891, she edited the only student newspaper in Krapina - Zagorsko proljeće under the pseudonym M. Jurica Zagorski. Following the publication of the first issue, it was banned because of what Zagorka wrote in the introduction titled "The Spirit of Matija Gubec Accuses - Later Generations Haven't Used Spilled Blood and Are Still Slaves". In 1896, she wrote unsigned articles for the Hrvatski branik and Hrvatska Posavina newspapers.
During the same year, Zagorka started working in Obzor, first as proofreader because the board of directors and editor-in-chief Šime Mazzuro objected to her for being a woman, but after bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer's intervention, as a journalist, although she had to sit in a separate room so no one would see her. She mostly wrote on politics, and occasionally travelogues from Zagorje, biographies, autobiographies, feuilletons, humoresques, short stories and novels in sequels. On 31 October 1896, her first article in Obzor titled Egy Percz was published. In the article, Zagorka wrote about the exclusive usage of the Hungarian language - which majority of Croats didn't understand - at the train stations in Croatia, which is why passengers didn't know where the trains were going. She later reported on political developments from the Croatian-Hungarian Parliament in Budapest and from Vienna, adding comments on politicians, and interviews and notes on unofficial political talks and general political atmosphere, which significantly contributed to the increase of Obzor's circulation. After Obzor's editor-in-chief J. Pasarić and his deputy M. Heimerl were imprisoned in 1903 during Khuen-Héderváry's strongest oppression of Croats, Zagorka edited Obzor for five months by herself. A vocal opponent of magyarization and germanization of Croatia, she was imprisoned in solitary confinement for ten days for organizing demonstrations against Khuen-Héderváry. However, her editorial work in Obzor wasn't mentioned in 1936 Obzor's Memorial Book which deeply offended her. During this time, she also wrote articles for Hungarian opposition newspapers Népszava and Magyarország. In 1910, she participated in the founding of the Croatian Journalists' Association. During the same year, she married her fellow journalist Slavko Amadej Vodvařka. They divorced in 1914.
In 1917, Zagorka left Obzor and started her own magazine - Zabavnik and also wrote articles for Jutarnji list. Afterward, she published and edited first Croatian woman magazine Ženski list , personally writing most of the articles, which had a feminist and patriotic note. Zagorka also wrote articles for dozens of other prominent newspapers, including Vijenac and Novi list.
She participated in the foundation of the Croatian Female Writers' Association in 1936.
In 1938, she left Ženski list dissatisfied with the majority of the editorial staff that become supporters of conservatism and clericalism contrary to their original support for liberalism and feminism. In 1939, she founded magazine Hrvatica . All of the proceedings acquired from the subscribers were spent on the printing, while Zagorka volunteered. During World War II, she was persecuted by Ustaše who forbid her from publishing Hrvatica, seized all the existing magazine copies, subscription money, and even furniture from her apartment. Faced with constant harassment, she attempted suicide. In 1944, she tried to join the Yugoslav Partisans but was rejected. Following the end of the war, she became excluded from the cultural scene for which she blamed some of her former, misogynist colleges from Obzor who believed that woman should only write romance novels. Since she didn't have a pension and was therefore dependent on the help of acquaintances and readers, she decided to published an advertisement in which she sought someone who would regularly bring her food. Among several candidates, she selected two younger men, Nikola Smolčić and Leo Car, who introduced themselves as cousins but were, in fact, a couple. She eventually asked them to move in with her. It was later revealed from the letters she secretly sent to her friends that she was heavily mistreated by Smolčić and Car. Zagorka joined the Women's Antifascist Front of Croatia, Slobodna Dalmacija purchased the copyright to her works, and in 1952, she became an independent publisher collaborating with the Otokar Keršovani Printing Office.

Death

Zagorka died in Zagreb at the age of 84. She was buried on Mirogoj Cemetery by the chapel on the right side from the entrance, but not long after, her body was moved to the arcades on the left, away from the entrance.
, Croatia

Legacy

Zagorka's property was inherited by Smolčić, who died not long after, passing the property to his partner, Car. Although Zagorka wanted her apartment on Dolac Market to be turned into a memorial center, Car did not respect her last wish, renovated the apartment and continued to live in it until his death in September 1986. In 2009, City of Zagreb bought the apartment from Car's heirs and turned it into a Memorial apartment of Marija Jurić Zagorka - operated by the educational NGO Centre for Women's Studies Zagreb - in which visitors can learn more about Zagorka and other influential women in the fields of culture, politics, science, and human rights. Every year, at the end of November, the Center organizes a cultural and scientific event entitled Days of Marija Jurić Zagorka. Every third Thursday of the month, the Center organizes public lectures on Zagorka and women's literature.
In a 2005 poll compiled by Vjesnik, a Zagreb daily newspaper, Zagorka came second in the list of most popular Croatian writers of all time.
Croatian Journalists' Association awards each year Marija Jurić Zagorka Award for excellence in written, radio, television, online and investigative journalism.

Works

None of her novels have been translated into English, but two are available in German: The Witch of Gric and Malleus Maleficarum. The latter title is the same as that of the "textbook" published in 1488 about how to find the witches, though Zagorka's novel is a fictional tale, not a witch-hunting manual. 11 of her novels, published in Croatian, are found in the Library of Congress.
The book starts with a set of mysterious serial murders, each body found under the Bloody Bridge that connects Grič and Kaptol. The story revolves around Count Juraj Meško who is set on unmasking Baron Makar for the murder of his wife, and a poor servant girl Stanka whom her mistress dresses in the manner of a boy and presents to the society as her young nephew: Lieutenant Stanko. Meško soon grows fond of the little lieutenant and asks for his friendship and help, which Stanka accepts. The girl falls in love with the Count, risking her employment and head by the Baroness. She keeps on assisting the Count who does not recognize or return her love due to his conviction that his little friend is a boy. The story involves genres of adventure, romance, and history present in all of her novels but stands out as the only crime novel next to the Princess of Petrinjska Street.