THE SAILOR LETTERS OF BOŽIDAR MAŽURANIĆ

Abstract

The article is about an unpublished and quite unknown work of Božidar Mažuranić, Ivan Mažuranićs grandson. There is a short biography and description of places which Božidar Mažuranić visited sailing as a cadet on an Austro-Hungarian ship from 1st May 1900 to 16th August 1901. Božidar Mažuranić kept a diary in a form of letters he was sending to his family. Some selected parts of the diary are used to show Božidar Mažuranić's experiences during his travels (meeting new people and places, unusual natural phenomena, the art of other cultures). The account of his travels is very interesting being written in the form of sailor's letters. It is an authentic document describing some parts of the world at the beginning of the century, containing many elements of adventurous literature. The author's sister, Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, gave advice concerning language problems.