Karel Grabeljšek - Gaber – writer from Vrhnika – received not one, but two
Prešeren Awards (in 1948 and 1976). He is known for his literary work with
motifs of the Yugoslav people’s national liberation struggle during World War
II. In addition to short stories and novellas he wrote three novels about the
time of the partisan war in the Dolomites. The fourth novel "Between fear and duty" ('Med strahom in
dolžnostjo') shows the
plight of rural people in the time of war and is one of the best prose works with partisan theme. He was also an author of
many works for youth.
After he wrote about the war, he moved further back in his own history and
wrote about his childhood. A year before Gaber’s death ‘’Church Cat’’ (‘Cerkveni
maček’) was published. On three hundred pages he reveals to readers his
childhood and puberty, he writes about the time before the First World War and
the time between both wars, about poverty, children’s games, life at and around Church Sv. Pavel, school and about his first love.
Grabeljšek was born in 1960. He graduated in 1938 and then he taught in
Trbovlje and Vrhnika. In 1942 he joined the partisans as a journalist and after
the war he was an editor of the newspaper ‘Kmečki glas’.