page_title: Luiza Pesjak
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Luiza Pesjak / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: Yugoslavian stamp with painting by Mihael Stroj.
context_page_description: Luiza Pesjak or Lujiza Pesjakova was a Slovene writer, poet and translator. She was the first woman to write a novel in Slovene.
context_section_description: Pesjak was born Alojzija Crobath in Ljubljana on 12 June 1828 as the daughter of lawyer Blaž Crobath. She was educated in the Fröhlich Institute and by local teachers, including France Prešeren. Pesjak was acquainted with Stritar, Gregorčič and Levstik with whom she exchanged correspondence. Pesjak spend a considerable time invested in reading, going to the theater and opera as well as traveling and being social. She was one of Slovenia's early novelists, producing the story Beata's diary in 1887 as well as writing poetry, plays and the opera libretto for Gorenjski slavček. Pesjak included a strong patriotic message into her works. She was published in both Slovenia and Germany. Notably her first works were in German as at that time she didn't speak Slovene. 
  Pesjak was married in 3 October 1848 to the entrepreneur Simon Pesjak. They had five daughters, Helena, Louise, Mary, Ida, and Emma. Though the family spoke German and French, the girls got a local teacher after the introduction of a constitution granting civil and political liberties in the Austrian Empire in 1860 and it was after this that Pesjak learned Slovene and began to write in the language. She began to promote the learning of the local language and to translate poems into it. She translated works in German, English, Italian, Czech and French. She was published in a number of journals. It took ten years for Pesjak to get her diary novel published with her conditions but eventually she succeeded in 1887. In later life her financial stability decreased and Pesjak lived in restricted means almost forgotten. In 1897 she had a stroke while in Podbrezje and died in March 1898.
  A street was named for her, though the name was given in a German form, Luiza Pesjakova, and she was featured on a Yugoslavian stamp. Her portrait is in the National Gallery of Slovenia where it is one of the most popular pictures.
caption: Yugoslavian stamp
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