Croatian Greats sold out!

Croatian Greats, a book written by Dr. Božo Skoko and published by Večernji list daily, is an exceptional success. More than 3,000 copies were sold in only a few weeks, so a new edition will be printed and will reach the market next week.

The book was promoted in Zagreb's Mimara Museum on 16 September. The occasion was enhanced by the presence of Croatian president Ivo Josipović and president of the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences Zvonimir Kusić. The speakers at the promotion included the book's editor Dražen Klarić, Content Manager of Večernji list, Neven Budak, a historian and professor at the Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dr. Vladimir Lončarević, a literature theoretician, and Dr. Ivan Tanta, a communicologist.

"There are but a few countries and nations in the world today who have not published in the past decades – even centuries – books about great figures from their history. The intent of such selections was to present 50, 100, 200 or more significant persons and save them from obscurity, thus assigning them the deserved place in the collective memory. Although no such selection – this one included – has ever been made without disputes and controversies, they have become an important landmark for perception of good and bad sides of national histories. The past decade saw such selections being made in many European countries. They were mostly supported by major media. In such a context, the publishing of this book by Večernji list was a logical move", said Klarić at the promotion, adding that every such edition has a national mission of a sort, primarily to inform, remind or educate us about the prominent people who gave their contribution to the development of Croatia, promoted it around the world or made us feel indebted to them in some other ways. In Klarić's opinion, the book is an important contribution to Croatia's coming of age, deprived of any ideological or other prejudices. Without diminishing the relevance of other similar editions published in the past two and a half decades, no one has yet managed to overshadow the monumentality and comprehensiveness of the 1925 edition Famous and Meritorious Croats or win masses with style, coherence and clarity in order to popularize our great historical figures as some foreign editions have done. Somewhere along these lines is Skoko with his book. He is one of the very few who have used a scientific approach in dealing with the phenomenon of Croatia's greats and our perception of them and their work and the honor paid to them in the past and today, exploring at the same time who exactly were our greats and why have they been perceived the way they have. Owing to that and his publicist skills, we now have a book which is scientific and popular, well-argumented and relevant at the same time, and yet sufficiently easy-to-read for an average reader, concluded Klarić.

More than 1,500 copies were sold as soon as within a week after it had been published – something that can be considered an exceptional success under current conditions in Croatia, underlined the publisher. All this reflects the importance of the subject, lack of popular literature on Croatian greats and also the popularity of the author.

Top 25 most popular Croatian greats that Croats esteem and celebrate the most (in chronological order):

1. King Tomislav
2. Marco Polo
3. Marko Marulić
4. Juraj Julije Klović
5. Nikola Šubić Zrinski
6. Matija Gubec
7. Ivan Gundulić
8. Petar Zrinski and Fran Krsto Frankopan
9. Ruđer Bošković
10. Josip Jelačić
11. Ivan Mažuranić
12. Josip Juraj Strossmayer
13. Ante Starčević
14. August Šenoa
15. Vlaho Bukovac
16. Nikola Tesla
17. Slavoljub Eduard Penkala
18. Stjepan Radić
19. Antun Gustav Matoš
20. Ivana Brlić–Mažuranić
21. Ivan Meštrović
22. Josip Broz Tito
23. Miroslav Krleža
24. Alojzije Stepinac
25. Franjo Tuđman