Josip Jurčič

Born in Muljava in 1844, Josip Jurčič grew up listening to village stories that would later echo through his fiction. He became a writer and journalist at a young age, and his early success helped establish him as one of the key figures in 19th-century Slovene literature.

Jurčič is especially remembered for Deseti brat (The Tenth Brother), often described as the first full-length original novel in Slovene. He followed the literary ideas of Fran Levstik and became known for bringing new energy to Slovene narrative writing through short stories, longer tales, and novels grounded in everyday life, local speech, and folk tradition.

Alongside his literary work, he was active in journalism and eventually served as editor of the newspaper Slovenski narod. He died in Ljubljana in 1881 from tuberculosis, but his influence endured, and his birthplace in Muljava later became a museum dedicated to his life and work.