Little Ivana's Big Mischief!
Ivana, as a child, tried to trick everyone into thinking that a poem she wrote was actually a lost work of her famous grandfather.
As a child, Ivana was not very girly. She declared topics her friends talked about to be „boring“ and called their conversations "pointless yelling". Ivana, on the other hand, loved writing.
But she was aware that, just because she was a woman, it would be difficult for her to succeed in the 19th Centuries world of literature. Although she was a granddaughter of the first Croatian ban – a commoner known for having introduced compulsory schooling for all children, both male, and female, she did not attend school.
Ivana finished only two classes of the girls' gymnasium and was educated at home by the governess Henrietta. But, thanks to her grandfather's library and private teaching in various languages, she was very educated.
Unfortunately, because of the lack of formal education, she could not attend institutions of higher education. But she found her purpose in writing. As a child, Ivana feared that she will not be taken seriously in the world of literature. The world which she truly loved and admired. And this is why she decided to protest.
It was in her teenage years, during the time her beloved grandfather died. When the shock subsided, she observed as her parents slowly began to organize Ivan's legacy. Boxes full of yellowed sheets of paper were brought out of his study. They contained verses, translations, and poems of the biggest Croatian poet – Ivan Mažuranić himself. She looked at this work full of envy, thinking that she would never be able to be proud of her own poems. She thought that no one would want to publish her works. So, one evening while everyone was sleeping, Ivana pulled out a yellowed paper from a box full of her grandfathers' writings. She carefully carried it to her room. And when she was sure that no one would notice her, Ivana took out a quill and wrote on the stolen paper. She decided to write down, what she, herself, declared to be her best literary achievement – the poem "Thought". After copying the poem as closely as she could to her grandfather's handwriting, she secretly slipped it back into the dusty old box with his legacy. She dreamed that at least one of her works would live publicly among his achievements.
Unfortunately for Ivana, her childhood poem was never published as a poem by Ivan Mažuranić. But it shouldn't have been.
Ivana grew up to be one of the most talented Croatian writers and a famous children's author. Ivana Brlić Mažuranić is considered to be the most translated Croatian writer and the writer with the largest number of publications. Her childhood fear did not come true. Towards the end of her life, Ivana was widely read and appreciated.
