Mate Balota

Mijo Mirković (; 28 September 1898 – 17 February 1963), also known by his pen names Miho and Mate Balota, was a prominent Croatian poet, novelist and economist. Considered one of the most prominent Croatian poets of the 20th century and often credited as the greatest Istrian poet, he was called "the greatest Istrian after Labin's Matija Vlačić" by Tone Peruško.

Mirković was born in Rakalj, southeastern Istria. His family was evacuated to Moravia at the beginning of the Great War. Upon his return to Croatia he worked as a journalist in Pula before moving to Zagreb, where he graduated from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. He later studied economy and social sciences in Berlin and Frankfurt, where he had gone in order to examine the original manuscripts of Matija Vlačić. He obtained his doctorate from the University of Frankfurt in 1922, and subsequently taught in Osijek, Subotica and Belgrade. After World War II, he was a professor at the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb until his death. A member of Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts (JAZU) since 1947, he was its Secretary General from 1958 until 1961, and in 1960 received the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Mirković is one of the most appreciated Croatian dialect poets. Beside poetry, he is also known for his narrative and nonfiction books, and for his works on economy. He published many discussions, books and textbooks on the theory of foreign and domestic trade, industrial policy, national economy, history of economy and economics of agriculture, publishing such works as ''Trade and Domestic Trade Policy'' (1931), ''Foreign Trade Policy'' (1932), ''Industrial Policy'' (1936), ''Agrarian Policy'' (1940), ''Economic Structure of Yugoslavia 1918–1941'' (1950) and ''Economic History of Yugoslavia'' (1958).

His best known work of poetry is the collection ''Dragi kamen'', published in Zagreb in 1938 and named after the 1931 poem, which was later published in several more editions. Described as a nostalgic experience of Istria, a meeting named after the book is held in Rakalj since 1968, in Mirković's honour. Among his other books there are ''Stara Pazinska Gimnazija'' and ''Puna je Pula'', the latter a monograph in which Mirković combines fiction with documentary work. These realist texts depict life in the Istrian villages, with both the Istrians' happy and tragic moments. His only novel is ''Tijesna zemlja: roman iz istarskog narodnog života'' (1946), an economic and social study in which he portrays life in an Istrian village from the second half of the 19th century until the 1940s, following the life of a family through three generations. Provided by Wikipedia