Martin Kukučín

Martin Kukučín (real name Matej Bencúr, 17 May 1860, Jasenová, – 21 May 1928, Pakrac) was a Slovak prose writer, dramatist and publicist.

He was born into a family of freemen, or soltys,[1] the son of Ján Bencúr Juriš and his wife Zuzana, née Pašková, and had two brothers and one sister.

Instead in 1893 he began to work as a doctor in the village of Selca on the island of Brač in Croatia, where he was also an active member of the cultural society Hrvatski Sastanak.

In 1904, he married Perica Didolić, with whom he left in 1908 for South America, where they settled in Punta Arenas, Chile, where there was a large community of Croatian émigrés.

During 1922–24, he lived again in Slovakia (Czechoslovakia at that time), then moved to Croatia in 1924–25, briefly returning to Chile in 1925 to resolve property disputes.