{{Short description|Serbia's oldest writers' organization}} {{distinguish|Association of Writers of Serbia}} {{Infobox union | name = Serbian Literary Guild | location = Serbia | affiliations = | num_members = | full_name = | native_name = Српска књижевна задруга | image = Srpska književna zadruga - 2017 post stamp of Serbia.jpg | image_size = 225px | caption = 2017 Serbian post stamp celebrating 125th anniversary | founded = {{Start date and years ago|1892|04|29|df=y}} | dissolved = | merged_into = | headquarters = Kralja Milana 19, Belgrade | key_people = Milovan Danojlić | website = [https://www.srpskaknjizevnazadruga.com/ srpskaknjizevnazadruga.com] | footnotes = }} The '''Serbian Literary Guild''' ({{langx|sr|Српска књижевна задруга|Srpska književna zadruga}}, '''SKZ''') is Serbia's oldest writers' association and the second-oldest publishing house after Matica srpska.

==History== It was founded in Belgrade on 29 April 1892 in the no longer existing building of the Royal Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts by sixteen prominent people of the cultural, scientific and political life of that time. Since its inception, the traditional institution has edited works by both Serbian and international authors and finally contributed to promotion and dissemination of Serbian and other translated world's literature. The traditional corporation has thus made an important contribution to the Serbian cultural life for more than a century. The cooperative's coat of arms was designed by Jovan Jovanović Zmaj.<ref>[http://www.srpskaknjizevnazadruga.com/The-Serbian-Literary-Cooperative-A-brief-historical-overview.pdf The Serbian Literary Cooperative, A brief historical overview] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151013210302/http://www.srpskaknjizevnazadruga.com/The-Serbian-Literary-Cooperative-A-brief-historical-overview.pdf |date=13 October 2015 }} (PDF, in English) on the Official Website by [http://www.srpskaknjizevnazadruga.com Srpska književna zadruga], retrieved on 2017-10-25.</ref><ref>[http://www.rts.rs/page/stories/sr/story/16/kultura/2570254/srpska-knjizevna-zadruga--od-kraljevske-brige-do-prezivljavanja.html Report on the 125th anniversary] on the Website by RTS, retrieved on 2017-10-26.</ref><ref>[http://www.politika.rs/scc/clanak/379215/Lex-specialis-za-Srpsku-knjizevnu-zadrugu Lex specialis за Српску књижевну задругу] (Lex specialis for the Serbian Literary Cooperative), Article by Politika of 25 April 2017, retrieved on 2017-10-26.</ref>

During the Kingdom of Serbia the Guild had<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bataković|first=Dušan|date=2017|title=On Parliamentary Democracy in Serbia 1903–1914 Political Parties, Elections, Political Freedoms|journal=Balcanica|volume=XLVIII}}</ref> 11,000 members in Serbia and the Balkans and operated as a major publishing house, but its actual role was that of an educational institution that carefully fostered national culture and ideas of South-Slavic unity as well. The Guild translated numerous Greek and Roman classics as well as French literature of the time. Their works were smuggled in Slavic provinces under Austrian rule, as the Austrian authorities considered the works to be liberally and nationally charged.

Among the numerous publications of the Literary Cooperative can be found many translated works of international writers such as Jorge Amado, Ludovico Ariosto, Honoré de Balzac, Charles Baudelaire, Beaumarchais, Lord Byron, Luís Vaz de Camões, Albert Camus, Geoffrey Chaucer, Paul Claudel, James Fenimore Cooper, Alphonse Daudet, Charles Dickens, Charles Diehl, Maurice Druon, George Eliot, Thomas Stearns Eliot, Euripides, Richard J. Evans, William Faulkner, Gustave Flaubert, Benjamin Franklin, Oliver Goldsmith, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Peter Handke, Thomas Hardy, Ludwik Hirszfeld, Victor Hugo, Aldous Huxley, Henry James, Franz Kafka, Søren Kierkegaard, Rudyard Kipling, David Lodge, Thomas Babington Macaulay, André Malraux, Christopher Marlowe, Herman Melville, Prosper Mérimée, Molière, Eugene O’Neill, Joyce Carol Oates, Edgar Allan Poe, France Prešeren, Francisco de Quevedo, Rainer Maria Rilke, Isak Samokovlija, Friedrich von Schiller, Arthur Schnitzler, Albert Schweitzer, Walter Scott, William Shakespeare, Henryk Sienkiewicz, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Stendhal, Hippolyte Taine, Henry David Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy, François Villon, Virgil, Oscar Wilde and Thomas Wolfe.<ref>[http://www.vbs.rs/cobiss/index.html Catalogue] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190815210151/http://www.vbs.rs/cobiss/index.html |date=15 August 2019 }} of National Library of Serbia, retrieved on 2017-10-26.</ref>

==Presidents== * Stojan Novaković, 1892—1895<ref name="Jugoslovenski književni leksikon">{{cite book |author=Đuro Gavela |editor = Živan Milisavac |date=1971 |title=Jugoslovenski književni leksikon |trans-title=Yugoslav Literary Lexicon |publisher=Matica srpska |language=sh |location= Novi Sad (SAP Vojvodina, SR Serbia) |page=500-501 }}</ref> * Ljubomir Kovačević, 1895—1898<ref name="Jugoslovenski književni leksikon"/> * Pera Đorđević, 1898—1902<ref name="Jugoslovenski književni leksikon"/> * Ljubomir Stojanović, 1902—1904<ref name="Jugoslovenski književni leksikon"/> * Ljubomir Jovanović, 1904—1906 * Dobroslav Ružić, 1906—1908<ref name="Jugoslovenski književni leksikon"/> * Stojan Novaković, 1908—1915 * Sreta Stojković, 1920—1928<ref name="Jugoslovenski književni leksikon"/> * Pavle Popović, 1928—1937<ref name="Jugoslovenski književni leksikon"/> * Marko Car, 1937—1941<ref name="Jugoslovenski književni leksikon"/> * Tihomir Đorđević, 1941—1942<ref name="Jugoslovenski književni leksikon"/> * Veljko Petrović, 1945—1952<ref name="Jugoslovenski književni leksikon"/> * Miloš N. Đurić, 1952—1957<ref name="Jugoslovenski književni leksikon"/> * Vojislav Đurić, 1957—1961<ref name="Jugoslovenski književni leksikon"/> * Milan Đoković, 1961—1962<ref name="Jugoslovenski književni leksikon"/> * Svetislav Đurić, 1962—1966<ref name="Jugoslovenski književni leksikon"/> * Milan Đoković, 1966—1969<ref name="Jugoslovenski književni leksikon"/> * Dobrica Ćosić, 1969—1972 * Risto Tošović, 1973—1986 * Radovan Samardžić, 1988—1994 * Branko V. Radičević, 1995—1997 * Novica Petković, 1997—1999 * Milisav Savić, 2000—2001 * Slavenko Terzić, 2001—2005 * Slobodan Rakitić, 2005—2013 * Milovan Danojlić, 2013–<ref>Predsednici (Председници) on the Official Website by [http://www.srpskaknjizevnazadruga.com Srpska književna zadruga] retrieved on 2017-10-25.</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}} {{Commons category|Srpska književna zadruga}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2019}}

{{Serbian literature}} {{Authority control}} Category:Book publishing companies of Serbia Category:Publishing companies established in 1892 Category:Writers' organizations based in Serbia