Vinko Kos

Vučetinec, his birthplace

Vinko Kos was born in Vučetinec, a village in the parish of Sveti Juraj na Bregu in the Austro-Hungarian Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia on 10 July 1914, to Petar Kos and his wife Ana (née Bistrović). Vinko's mother died in 1942 of tuberculosis and his father died in 1945.[1]

He went to primary school to his village and continued his schooling thanks to Stjepan Horvat, a poet from Sveti Juraj na Bregu. Horvat helped him because Vinko was talented, but also very poor. Kos attended Varaždin Franciscan Gymnasium and Diocesan Seminary in Škofja Loka.[1]

He leaves studies in 1936 and in 1937 starts writing for newspaper such as Luč, Hrvatska prosvjeta, Hrvatska revija, Hrvatska straža, Hrvatsko jedinstvo, Obitelj, Glasnik sv. Ante, Hrvatska smotra, Hrvatski ženski list, Omladina, Seljačka omladina, Jutarnji list, Morgenblatt, Plava revija, Danica, Hrvatska mladost, Hrvatska misao, Hrvatski godišnjak and many others.[1]

Kos was associate of Blessed Alojzije Stepinac. On his suggestion, Kos opened Dječji grad, an educational institution for pre-school children. In 1945, Kos was taken away from Zagreb, where he lived with his wife and two daughters and was killed by Yugoslav Partisans near Klagenfurt, after Bleiburg repatriations. His body was never found.[1]

• Vodopad (1939)
• Kipar (1941)
• Božićne zvjezdice (1941)
• Zlatna jabuka (1942)
• Dušenka (1943)
• Šišmiš (1943)
• Divlji dječak (1943)
• Lada (1944) - Winner of The City of Zagreb Award in 1945
• Planinski dječak (1945)
• Zlatni orasi (published after his death in Toronto in 1967, by Lucijan Kordić)
• Sabrana djela 1-2 (Čakovec, 1997)

• Vinko Kos