Ivan Franko

Ivan Franko
Franko in 1910
Franko in 1910
Native name
Іван Якович Франко
Born(1856-08-27)27 August 1856
Nahuievychi, Austrian Empire (now Ukraine)
Died28 May 1916(1916-05-28) (aged 59)
Lemberg, Austria-Hungary (now Lviv, Ukraine)
Resting placeLychakiv Cemetery
Pen nameMyron, Kremin, Zhyvyi
Occupationpoet, writer, political activist
LanguageUkrainian, Polish, German, Russian
EducationFranz-Josephs-Universität Czernowitz
University of Vienna (PhD, 1893)
Period1874–1916
Genreepic poetry, short story, novels, drama
Literary movementRealism, Decadent movement
Spouse
Olha Fedorivna Khoruzhynska
(m. 1886)
ChildrenAndriy
Petro Franko
Taras Franko
Hanna Klyuchko (Franko)

Ivan Yakovych Franko (Ukrainian: Іван Якович Франко, pronounced [iˈwɑn ˈjɑkowɪtʃ frɐnˈkɔ]; 27 August 1856 – 28 May 1916)[1] was a Ukrainian poet, writer, social and literary critic, journalist, translator, economist, political activist, doctor of philosophy, ethnographer, and the author of the first detective novels and modern poetry in the Ukrainian language.

He was a political radical, and a founder of the socialist and nationalist movement in Western Ukraine. In addition to his own literary work, he also translated into Ukrainian the works of such renowned figures as William Shakespeare, Lord Byron, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Dante Alighieri, Victor Hugo, Adam Mickiewicz, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller. His translations appeared on the stage of the Ruska Besida Theatre. Along with Taras Shevchenko, he has had a tremendous influence on modern literary and political thought in Ukraine.