Jagoda Truhelka

• Name — Jagoda Truhelka • Born — 5 February 1864 • Birthplace — Osijek, Kingdom of Slavonia, Austrian Empire (now Osijek, Croatia) • Died — 17 December 1957 • Place of death — Zagreb, FPR Yugoslavia (now Zagreb, Croatia) • Occupation — writer, novelist, teacher • Relatives — Ćiro Truhelka (brother)

Truhelka was born on 5 February 1864 in Osijek, capital of the Kingdom of Slavonia, Austrian Empire. She was the eldest of three children of Marija (née Schön) and Antun Vjenceslav Truhelka. Her parents were both immigrants to Slavonia; her father, a teacher, was a Czech, and her mother was a Danube Swabian. She attended a gymnasium in Osijek. After her father's death in 1878, Truhelka moved to Zagreb, now capital of the new Austro-Hungarian Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, with her mother and younger brothers, Dragoš and Ćiro Truhelka. Truhelka continued her education in Zagreb, intending to follow in her father's footsteps. She received her teacher's diploma in 1882.

Truhelka got her first job soon after receiving her diploma in 1882, teaching girls in Osijek. Following further education, she was appointed headmistress of a girls' school in Gospić, where she worked for seven years. She accepted a new job in Zagreb in 1892. The fin de siècle Zagreb was a stimulating cultural and intellectual environment for a teacher who had thus far worked in the province. She spent nine years there, building a reputation as a capable teacher and defying prejudice against the education of women by enrolling, along with three other women, into the University of Zagreb. During this period, Truhelka was influenced by the ideas of individualism and universal freedom, as well as by the promotion of education and women's rights. In 1901, Truhelka moved to Banja Luka, in the Austro-Hungarian-occupied Bosnia-Herzegovina, where she worked as a girls' school headmistress for ten years. During her subsequent work as teacher in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina's capital, Truhelka was particularly active in promoting women's rights.

Jagoda Truhelka is recorded as writer, pedagogue and school teacher.

Later in her career, as the modernism faded, Truhelka focused on children's literature, which often contained autobiographical elements. Zlatni danci was published in 1918. Upon her retirement in August 1923, Truhelka returned to Zagreb, by then the second largest city of Yugoslavia, and withdrew from public life. She continued her work on children's literature into advanced old age. Bogorodičine trešnje and Crni i bijeli dani were published in 1929 and 1944 respectively. These two, along with Zlatni danci, place her among the most prominent Croatian children's writers, second only to Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić. Portraying the everyday lives of children, Truhelka strived to include ethical, religious and patriotic lessons. In her retirement, Truhelka rarely made reference to women's rights and notable women. She died in Zagreb on 17 December 1957, aged 93. She remains best known for her children's literature.