Stjepan Mitrov Ljubiša

Stjepan (modernist: Stefan) Mitrov Ljubiša (Serbian Cyrillic: Стјепан Митров Љубиша; 29 February 1824, Budva – 11 November 1878, Vienna), was a Serbian writer and politician. He is famous for his unique short stories, generally ranked among the masterpieces of Serbian literature in its day. These stories are also a symbol of the Serbian rebirth, both for its patriotic message and because it was a fundamental milestone in the Serbian language reform.

Although born in the town of Budva, Austrian Empire, Ljubiša traced his ancestry to the hinterland and the Paštrovići clan, a fact he was always proud to stress. One of his cousins was Visarion Ljubiša (1823–84), who later became the Metropolitan of the Serbian Orthodox Church from 1882 to 1884. His father Mitar (therefore the patronymic Mitrov) was a seaman whom he rarely saw and died when Stjepan was only 14 years old. His education, mostly in the Italian language, went irregularly since he had to work to help support his family from an early age. Therefore, Ljubiša became an autodidact, educating himself from the books he could find. But the love for national literature revealed itself through the writings of Vuk Karadžić, and his association with Vuk Vrčević, Karadžić's faithful collaborator.

When only 19, he was elected to the post of the secretary of the town of Budva. This job forced him into learning more on current laws and was soon considered by the plain folks to be a lawyer and was often approached as such. He started writing court records and even operated as a defender in the local court of law. This self-thought knowledge of his was then acknowledged by the authorities and without taking a judiciary exam he became a public notary.

In the revolutionary 1848, Ljubiša was an active member of the ad hoc assembly of Boka Kotorska in Prčanj and held a number of speeches against the Italian cultural dominance and for South-Slav unity.

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