The freshness of his lyrical poetry places him in the succession of Branko Radičević and he is also noted for his power of natural description.

He began with "Ne boj mi se" (Have no fear), a poem which appeared in the literary periodical Danica in 1863.

There he fell in love with the young Milena Stefanović, and through her parents he became acquainted with physician and poet Jovan Jovanović Zmaj, Milan Kujundžić-Aberdar, Laza Kostić and other men of letters of the time.

In 1873 he returned to his native village of Čerević, but his tuberculosis progressed so much so that Abbot German, a friend of the family, intervened and took Jovan to the Beočin monastery, where he could receive better clinical care than at home.

The funeral was attended by his medical colleagues, Jovan Jovanović Zmaj, Ilija Ognjenović-Abukazem, Lazar Stanojević and others.

However, he also wrote three extremely well-written short stories with fantastic elements which are: U gostionici kod Poluzvezde na imendanu šantavog torbara (1868); Sremska ruža (1868-1869); and Zmijina košuljica (Matica, 1868).

All three short stories were printed and distributed by the publishing house of Matica srpska in Novi Sad under the supervision of Antonije Hadžić.