The Nobel Prize also marked the beginning of a series of various honors for Ivo Andrić both in the country and abroad.
Tito handed over the decoration to Ivo Andrić in 1962, Photo by Stevan Kragujević
The newspapers conveyed congratulations from Josip Broz and the entire state party leadership.
Congratulations from the soldiers of the Novi Sad garrison were also noted, who said that “Na Drini ćuprija” was their favorite book, as well as a message from Milena Mitrović, a worker at the “Proleter” footwear factory. The obsession with the first Yugoslav Nobel laureate did not subside even in the months that followed. Each new translation of some of Andrić’s books has been recorded. It was similar all over Europe. And there “šjor Ivo” became a real hit. In order for any book to be translated, it was immediately sold out. The only dissonant tones come from West Germany.
Literary critics there persistently claim – Andrić received the most prestigious world literary award for political reasons.
It is also in the center of attention in Stockholm. After the award ceremony, he is invited to be a guest at the event for the selection of the most beautiful girl in Sweden. The organizers decided that the writer “On the Drina Bridge” would “crown” their seventeen-year-old Miss Gun Vansted.
He was also invited to open an exhibition dedicated to the Indian poet and thinker Rabindranath Tagore on December 16, 1961.
AND HOW Andrić experienced that hysteria that was woven around him. The chronicler of his life notes. “Some people like it, but the very thought of it makes me afraid.
When I was supposed to go to Stockholm in 1961, I was completely doomed. And how could I not from so many races and journalists. If it was up to me, I’d rather go to China and wait for all that rumble to pass. But it was not just me, but also a debt to the country and my people. Seeing how pale I was, my friends told me, “It’s like you’re going to abs, not to the Nobel Prize.”
After the awarding of the Nobel Prize, Dobrica Cosic tried on several occasions to convince Josip Broz to organize a reception for Ivo Andric. The eldest son of our peoples and nationalities took pity only after a year. He explained his hesitations to Dobrica “what will Fric (Miroslav Krleža) tell me if I receive him”. The protocol of the President of the Republic, led by Dr. Sloven Smodlaka from Split, was considered one of the best in the world. But alas, in the case of our Nobel laureate, a great omission was made accidentally or intentionally.
All guests were informed except Andrić. He found out only when they called him on the day of the reception and asked if he needed transportation to the White Palace. There was nothing left but for Ivo and his wife Milica to get ready again.
-drink and sit in a taxi.
In the SALON for the reception, besides Tito, there were Jovan Veselinov, Krste Crvenkovski, Dobrica Cosic and Bogdan Crnobrnja. They are served with coffee and juice.
Dobrica left a note about this meeting: “‘This forced event of paying state honors to a great writer was really painful. Tito is a marshal official, Andrić is an ambassador stiff and diplomatically conventional, Jovanka is cheerful and curious” as Comrade Andrić writes?’, Milica Babić . … I expected Tito to keep us for lunch since he received us at 11 a.m. and we were only served coffee and lemonade. At exactly 12 o’clock, Tito put down his pipe with the allowed cigarette and got up; we got up and all of us followed him; so we shook hands with false cordiality. Tito kept me for a moment to say to me: ‘Some very modest man, this Andrić,’ I agreed. “The reception was held almost a year after Andrić received the” Nobel “on October 10, 1962. Before coffee and lemonade, he presented the writer with the Order of the Republic with a golden wreath “for special merits in many years of work in the field of literary, cultural and public activities”.
“I thank you, Comrade Tito, for this decoration, which, received from your hands, represents the greatest recognition for every Yugoslav,” said Ivo while receiving the decoration.
BLAŽO Mandić, the man who was in Broz’s environment for the longest time in the book “Tito – Unspoken”, also writes about this meeting.
“Instead of literature and Andrić’s Nobel Prize, the story began with an easy topic – about smoking and smoking. With an anecdotal mention of a drunkard who lived a long time even though he drank, Andrić’s comment was: ‘So you can do both.’
– They say that something was found – said Jovan Veselinov – that was added to tobacco and reduced its harmful effect.
– Maybe. But then it is no longer tobacco – Ivo Andrić said calmly.
– Please, light it – Tito approached Andrić with a box of cigarettes.
– Thank you, I’ve already smoked one, and that’s enough for now … When they asked Voltaire why he left the wine, he replied: ‘I didn’t leave the wine, but the wine left me.’
LONG a man’s conversation about a human vice Andrić’s wife Milica deftly moved into the field of culture. She recalled that they had recently been in Greece and Egypt.
The monuments of ancient Egyptian culture, which Tito had already got to know well before, were a grateful topic for exchanging impressions.
“You must have seen the temples and tombs in Luxor,” Tito asked.
– Yes I am. The whole nation was worried about how their kings would feel after death – in a recognizable tone of mild irony, the writer said.
– You have thousands of such monuments in Egypt. Ramses II stood out in this.
He picked them up for himself wherever he went …
– To me, these monuments in Egypt looked a bit monotonous, they looked like each other – said Andrić.
– That’s right! Such is my observation. Many of the same monuments, many similar motifs …
BROZ BRANI KRLEŽU
TEN days after the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Andrić, Josip Broz Tito, Rodoljub Čolaković Roćko, Svetozar Vukmanović Tempo and the writer Oto Bihalji Merin gathered at the “Neptune” hotel in Brijuni on December 21, 1961. At one point, Bihalji mentioned the significance for Yugoslavia that one of our writers received this recognition.
Tito immediately reacted: “It is good that our writer, very deservedly, received this award. It is a great contribution to the reputation of our literature and our country in general … Otherwise, the award itself and the award criteria can be discussed.
There is a lot of relative. Krleža (Miroslav), for example, cannot receive a Nobel Prize. For in his many works he revealed the dark sides and essence of the exploiting classes, both feudal and bourgeois.
Such cannot be accepted as a candidate to those who award this prize. That would be contrary to their principles. “
AFTER Andrić mentioned that he was also in the Yugoslav parliamentary delegation visiting Turkey, Tito asked him:
“- Did they tell you how the Serbs in the battle near Ankara between Sultan Bayezid and the Mongol conqueror Timur fought more heartily than the Turks? They fought even when they fought.
The Turks taught. I have heard this from Bayar himself (Xhelal Bayar, the former President of the Republic of Turkey).
– Yes, it is known, under the leadership of Stefan Lazarevic …
Since Broz and Andrić were peers, Tito asked the Nobel laureate what age he was.
– I was born on October 9 in Doc near Travnik.
Well you are older than me! No, comrade Tito. You are the oldest and youngest in Yugoslavia! “
That was the end of this interesting conversation.
SUTRA: He lived and died with many secrets
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