Ivo Andrić

Yugoslav novelist (1892–1975)

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Writers rank#214

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Fame74.4
Momentum21.8
Writers rank#214
Wikipedia14.9K

Lived 1892–1975, aged 83

WritersWriter / Author

Wikipedia
92 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1892–1975
Aged 83
Known for
Buffet Titanic
1979

Summary

Updated 2026-06-08

A Yugoslav diplomat who spent World War II locked in a Belgrade apartment writing novels about Ottoman Bosnia — then won the Nobel over Tolkien, Frost, and Steinbeck for "epic force" drawn from his country's buried past.

Biography

About

Born in Travnik in 1892, Andrić joined South Slav youth movements in Sarajevo and was arrested after Franz Ferdinand's assassination in 1914, spending much of the Great War under house arrest though authorities never proved his involvement in the plot. He earned a PhD in South Slavic literature, worked as a diplomat for the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and by 1939 was ambassador to Germany — a post that ended with the Nazi invasion in April 1941. He returned to German-occupied Belgrade and spent the war in a friend's apartment under conditions like confinement, writing *The Bridge on the Drina* and…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Ivo Andrić

Ivo Andrić

said1945

For the greater part of its course the river Drina flows through narrow gorges between steep mountains or through deep ravines with precipitous banks.

— Ch. 1, first lines

Ivo Andrić

said1945

The common people remember and tell of what they are able to grasp and what they are able to transform into legend.

— Ch. 2

Ivo Andrić

said1945

Whenever a government feels the need of promising peace and prosperity to its citizens by means of a proclamation, it is time to be on guard and expect the opposite.

— Ch. 17

Ivo Andrić

said1945