GLAS NARODA (The Voice of the People) – THE OLDEST NEWSPAPER OF SLOVENE IMMIGRANTS IN THE US 

June is “Immigrant Heritage Month.” Throughout the month we will be posting materials relating to immigration and immigrant cultures of NYC.

Today’s guest-post is by Leonora Flis, Associate Professor of Literature (University of Nova Gorica and University of Maribor), Lecturer of the English language at the University of Ljubljana. (Bio below.)

One hundred years ago today… Glas Naroda served the Slovenian immigrant population of New York City.

From April 27 till June 9, 1922, Slovene writer Ivan Tavčar was the newspaper’s featured author. Dr. Ivan Tavčar (1851–1923) was a writer, lawyer, and a politician. He became one of the leading members of the National Progressive Party and served as the editor-in-chief of the journal Slovenski narod (Slovene Nation).

When it comes to publications of Slovene immigrants in the US, approximately 40% of Slovene American newspapers and other periodicals were conservative; others were more liberal, a few were even socialist, as Matjaž Klemenčič notes in his article “Slovene Periodicals in the USA, 1891–1920” (102). Glas naroda was politically moderate (supporting workers rights) even though it was issued as a bulletin of the Yugoslavian Catholic union, an umbrella association which provided insurance for numerous Slovene immigrants living in the USA. 

The Glas naroda newspaper was founded in 1893 by Frank Sakser, entrepreneur, publisher, and owner of Hrvatski Svjet (Croatian Council; an association of Croatian immigrants in the United States); it was published in New York. The first issue was printed on September 27, 1893. Starting from July 1898 the paper was issued twice a week, then from December 1901 to September 1903, three times a week, after that, it became a daily. According to Klemenčič, Glas naroda, with 14,000 copies being printed, was distributed beyond the local community as well. It was published until 1963. Among one of the most recognizable editors was Louis Adamic, who edited the newspaper for a while in 1916. Adamic remains one of the most successful and respected journalists and prose writers among Slovene immigrants in the U.S. to date. Glas naroda published excerpts from books by renowned Slovene authors (Ivan Tavčar, Josip Jurčič, Simon Gregorčič, Anton Aškerc, Ivan Cankar, Zofka Kveder) and foreign writers (Henryk Adam Sienkiewicz, Mark Twain, Anton Chekhov, Karl May, and others). The newspaper also often times included ads for affordable ship transfers between Europe and New York, the most often advertised route was from Rijeka (Croatia) to Trieste and then to New York.

Glas naroda’s June 1922 issue included a few short texts by Mark Twain, whom the editors seem to have loved very much. (Many of his shorter, humorous texts appeared over the years.)

Apart from Twain, the June issues of Glas naroda featured a famed work by Tavčar, Visoška kronika (1919) (The Visoko Chronicle). Tavčar, who was also a member of the Austrian parliament, became  Ljubljana’s mayor in 1911. He and his wife, Franja Košenini, became a very influential couple, as they were both active in various organizations, contributing to the development of a more liberal climate in Ljubljana as well as on a broader scale. 

 In terms of his literary works, Tavčar’s historical novel Visoška kronika is considered to be his greatest achievement. His novel Cvetje v jeseni (1917) (Blossoms in Autumn) is known as one of the most moving love stories in the history of Slovene literature; it was made into a film with the same title in 1973. The Visoko Chronicle was published in Glas naroda in its entirety between April 27, 1922 and June 9, 1922. The novel talks about two generations of the owners of the Visoko estate in Carniola, a predominantly Slovene province of the Habsburg Empire, in the seventeenth century. The events of the estate and the fate of its owners are affected by witchcraft persecutions, the mistreatment of Protestants, and the Thirty Years’ War. These themes were key to the establishing of the Slovene national identity, which was going through a crucial phase when Tavčar was writing. Visoška kronika is, in essence, a reflection on Slovene national history and identity. In the novel, Tavčar displayed his (otherwise sometimes wavering) liberal views, mostly through his ironic attitude towards religion and superstitious rituals, resentment towards powerful landowners, and his distancing from materialistic tendencies. 

References/ Further reading

Hladnik, Miran. “Tavčarjeva Visoška kronika.” Esej na maturi, edited by Vinko Cuderman. Ljubljana: Gyrus, 2006, pp. 61-105.

Klemenčič, Matjaž. “Slovene Periodicals in the USA, 1891-1920.” Razprave in gradivo. Inštitut za narodnostna vprašanja.. No. 55, Ljubljana, 2008,pp. 98-117.

– Leonora Flis, June 9, 2022

Leonora Flis is a Slovene literary scholar, an Associate Professor of Literature (University of Nova Gorica and University of Maribor) and a Lecturer of the English language at the University of Ljubljana. Flis also works as a literary translator, hosts roundtables, writes book reviews, and creates radio programs for the Slovene National Radio. She writes short stories; they have been published in Slovene and foreign literary magazines. In 2015 she published a collection of short stories titled Upogib časa, 2015 and she has an upcoming collection of stories to be published in 2022. Flis also teaches creative writing workshops. In 2011/12 she was a postdoctoral Fulbright scholar at Columbia University in New York and a visiting scholar at Fordham University, New York (2005/06).

TAGS: Immigrant, Newspaper, journalism, writing, immigration, Ivan Tavčar, Frank Sakser, Mark Twain