Old books

Just a few days ago my great-grandfather Matija would have celebrated his 134 birthday (22 February). On Tuesday I finally held the books, he had written about 100 years ago, in my hands. A treasure. The paper was falling apart while I was turning the pages and probably that’s why it is only possible to read those books in the library. I wonder why no such books existed in my granddad’s library. Were they too liberal, too funny?

Three books written by my great-grandfather and all signed with his pseudonyms.

Collected funny stories.

Short stories.

Index of short stories.

Matija obviously liked “to be” someone else because on all three covers his pseudonyms are written - Blaž Pohlin, Franc Svetlin - and nowhere his real name is mentioned. Was it too dangerous to write his real name, although everybody knew that he had written those stories? Nobody knows the answer today.

While reading his books I wondered if those stories are somehow connected with his life. He had four sons but I don’t think he spent much time with them as he was a banker during working hours and a librarian and an editor of a newspaper in his free time. As my aunt told me he was not very happy in marriage, because his wife was not very sociable and clever. Or maybe he just thought so… Yet another man who was running away from family duties, but consecutively other people had benefit from that. It sounds so familiar…