Jovan Ilić

Jovan "Jova" Ilić (Belgrade, 15 August 1824-Belgrade, 12 March 1901) was a Serbian poet and politician.

The Jovan Ilić family of Belgrade became a great Serbian family through one ancestor of humble origin who, as the expression goes, had an eye to the main chance. This ancestor was none other than Jovan Ilić's father, a merchant who arrived in Belgrade from Niš and married his mother, who came from Podgorica. His business thrived and when he died left a fortune large enough so that his widow Stana could afford the best education for her son Jovan.

Few boys ever grew up in a family atmosphere of such ease and sociability, such freedom and culture, as did Jovan Ilić. As he matured and got married, he too created the same atmosphere for his young, and growing family. Jovan Ilić and his wife Smiljana had seven children, four boys and three girls, but only one girl lived to adulthood, the other two girls died as toddlers. The four boys followed their father's footsteps, taking up literature as their life's work. Vojislav Ilić, a poet, was recognized as the preeminent poet of his day; Milutin, Dragutin and Žarko wrote books and were well known in their own right.

The independently minded Ilić was extremely broad in his interests. Artists, writers and poets were welcome at his Belgrade home, and their work was always being eagerly enjoyed and discussed there. Among young Jovan's earliest impressions were those "of the great and urbane Vuk Karadžić's occasional presence" and of the voice of Joksim Nović-Otočanin, "proceeding from my father's library" and uttering "the formidable words: 'Come here, little boy, and show me how you read!'" and then of Jovan Subotić himself "enormously big in the sunny light of the animated room dressed in all his sartorial elegance." Nikanor Grujić, Vasa Živković, Matija Ban, Medo Pucić, Danilo Medaković —- these were but a few of the men of letters who came to the Ilić home. Later when his sons were growing up, among the guests were: Milovan Glišić, Janko Veselinović, Simo Matavulj, Svetolik Ranković, Stevan Sremac, Radoje Domanović, Milorad Petrović Seljančica, Aleksa Šantić, Jovan Skerlić, Stevan Mokranjac, Stevan M. Luković, and many others.

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