Description

A first edition of an adventure novel for children in Slovenian language, printed in liberated city Trieste (today Italy) after WWII, tells a story about two boys accompanying two YugoslavAmericans on a flight around the world in an airplane “Triglav”.  

The book is not dated, but was printed in Trieste soon after WWII, possibly in late 1946. Trieste, which was during WWII first the center of the local Fascist, and later Nazi supervision, both of which were suppressing the Slavic inhabitants and press, was liberated by the Yugoslav Partisans and Allies on May 2, 1945. The Yugoslavs held the city for 40 days, after it was taken over by the British-U.S. military administration. 

The book was published as the first publication by a Slovene publishing house Gregorčičeva Založba, founded on December 15, 1946 (active until June 18, 1948). This novel is possibly one of the first Slavic books printed in liberated Trieste, under the Allied administration. Due to the post-war rationing, cheap paper was used for printing. 
The illustrations were made by a prominent artist Lojze Spacal (1907- 2000), born in Trieste to Slovenian parents, who was during the war imprisoned first by the Fascist and later by the Nazis for his participation in the national liberation movement. Spacal’s most famous works are dated after the war.  

The book is scarce. It only appears in Slovenian libraries and in the Slovenian library in Trieste.  

Bibliography: OLCL 780938090. Jevnikar, Martin: Hudales, Oskar. Slovenska biografija. Slovenska akademija znanosti in umetnosti, Znanstvenoraziskovalni center SAZU, 2013. http://www.slovenska-biografija.si/oseba/sbi1012000/#primorski-slovenski-biografski-leksikon (19. september 2019). Izvirna objava v: Primorski slovenski biografski leksikon: 7. snopič Hafner – Juvančič, 1. knjiga. Ur. Martin Jevnikar Gorica, Goriška Mohorjeva družba, 1981. Cevc, Emilijan: Spacal, Lojze (1907–2000). Slovenska biografija. Slovenska akademija znanosti in umetnosti, Znanstvenoraziskovalni center SAZU, 2013. http://www.slovenskabiografija.si/oseba/sbi595680/#slovenski-biografski-leksikon (18. september 2019). Izvirna objava v: Slovenski biografski leksikon: 10. zv. Schmidl – Steklasa. Alfonz Gspan et al. Ljubljana, Slovenska akademija znanosti in umetnosti, 1967.