Life story
Božena Slančíková, who wrote under the name Timrava, was born on 2 October 1867 in Polichno in the Novohrad region, the daughter of a Lutheran pastor. She spent most of her life in the quiet of rural parsonages, yet her view of the world was sharp, sober and unusually modern.
She became one of the most distinctive figures of Slovak realist prose. Without sentiment and without embellishment she portrayed the village, the fate of women and the hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie. Her short stories such as Ťapákovci and Skon Paľa Ročku rank among the finest that Slovak literature has produced.
In her extensive novella Hrdinovia she captured the First World War through the eyes of ordinary people — without pathos, with harrowing truthfulness. Her style was spare, precise and full of subtle irony; she was decades ahead of her time.
She lived modestly, long unrecognised, dependent on relatives. Only in old age did she receive recognition and the title of National Artist. She died on 27 November 1951 in Lučenec. She remained the voice of those whom literature had until then overlooked — women and country people.
Biographical information from public sources. Portrait: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).
Constellation of Life
Important milestones that shaped their journey.