Kosara Cvetković

Kosara Cvetković (Serbian Cyrillic: Косара Цветковић; Gornji Milanovac, 15 February 1868 - Belgrade, 28 January 1953) was a Serbian writer, translator, artist, photographer, pedagogue, literary and theater critic.
==Biography==
She was born in Gornji Milanovac on 15 February 1868, as the seventh child. She lost her mother early, and some of her siblings also died in early childhood. Father Kuzman first worked as a clerk in the District Court in Gornji Milanovac, but over time he progressed in the service, so the family often moved because of his job. Since 1871 she lived in Aleksinac, three years later they moved to Kruševac, and in 1875 they moved to Čačak, where his father became a member of the court, and later a judge, and he held that position until his death. Kuzman was originally from Sokol in the Alphabet County. In addition to his regular job, he had wide interests, especially in tradition and folk customs, as well as in enriching cultural life in all the environments in which he lived. He was a longtime friend of the literary critic Svetislav Vulović, with whom he corresponded.
Kosara began her schooling in Kruševac. After moving to Čačak she began to excell as a student and in 1883 she completed her Gymnasium (school)|Gymnasium, in the same generation as Jaša Prodanović, with whom she remained friends. While still living in Čačak, she showed a penchant for fine arts and music, she played the violin and flute very well. She learned Russian with her father, and was fluent in French and German. In Belgrade, in 1884, she graduated from a Women's College, and immediately in the same year she passed the teacher's exam. 
Although she was offered an assistant job after finishing her studies at the women's college, most likely in the desire to be closer to her father, at the age of 16 she started working as a teacher at the Men's Elementary School in Gornji Milanovac. Two years later, she sought relocation to Guča, where her brother Velimir worked as a teacher.
She then worked at the Women's Elementary School in Čačak. However, despite being one of the best teachers, she quickly became disappointed and revolted and left the service, as her superiors gave her a bad grade, because she helped her colleague Atanasija Berbović-Meisner, when she was left alone with her children after the duicide of her husband.
After leaving the teaching profession, she continued to live with her father in Čačak, and spent her time trying to expand her knowledge of foreign languages, reading and studying foreign literature and subscribing to numerous newspapers and publications.
Kosara Cvetković drew portraits and landscapes, political illustrations and caricature | caricatures, which she published under pseudonyms. During that period, she made an album with over 120 [drawings], watercolors and [graphics on which she recorded Čačak and its surroundings. This album, apart from art, has a special documentary value. 
She collaborated with renowned Serbian newspapers and classes, such as Neven (Serbian children's newspaper) Zorica, Bosanska vila, Ženski svet (magazine), Brankovo ​​kolo, Venac, Golub (newspaper), Brka, Misli, Srpče, Vardar and others, in which she published art articles, poems, prose, stories and articles. 
After her father's death in 1889, returned to service. She worked as a teacher of drawing, [geography] and writing as needed, often changing jobs. She worked in Kragujevac | Kragujevac, Užice | Užice, Čačak, Bijeljina | Bijeljina, and finally in 1894 she moved to the Women's High School in Belgrade, where she worked as a teacher for years. The new environment had a very stimulating effect on her, as she found herself in the company of exceptional personalities such as Katarina Milovuk, Nadežda Petrović , Isidora Sekulić, Milica Janković, Paulina Lebl-Albala. She corresponded intensively with many important cultural representatives of the time. With her literary works, she belonged to a group of Serbian women writers from the era of realism, who, dissatisfied with female literary figures, criticized society, culture and politics, especially in education, family and church. against established [stereotypes] and ignorance, trying to change them. She is the first literary and theater critic. 
At her own expense, in 1903 she published the collection "Tales for Girls and Boys", and in 1907 the collection "Seven Stories for Girls and Boys", with translations of works by Russian writers. of these books was a significant literary event, because until then, children's literature in the Serbian language, except for poetry, was very scarce. She is one of two women who were elected members by secret ballot Serbian Literary Society | Serbian Literary Society (1 '906). 
Before Great War|World War I, she prepared a monument on the "Fiftieth Anniversary of the Higher Women's School 1863-1913", in which she gave an overview of the history of this institution. 
She retired in 1924, as a teacher at the Second Women's Gymnasium. Before the end of her service as a teacher and after her retirement she completely dedicated herself to translation work. She translated by Mark Aldanov, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Anton Chekhov|Chekhov, Fyodor Dostoevsky|Dostoevsky, and Ivan Turgenev|Turgenev.
Although a large number of her works in the periodicals of that time are unlisted or unresolved, primarily due to the use of numerous pseudonyms, and her life and work have so far remained little or insufficiently studied, today's reprint of her translations of some masterpieces Russian literature | Russian literature, almost a century old, shows that in Serbian language | Serbian language have not been done so far better translations than hers. 
She did not marry and had no children. 
 
She died in Belgrade on January 28, 1953. 
==Legacy==
Nadežda Petrović painted a portrait of Kosara Cvetković - oil on cardboard 43.5x32.5cm (1905), which is on display at the National Museum in Belgrade [4]
 
Category:1868 births
Category:1953 deaths
Category:Serbian writers
Category:Serbian translators