Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić was born on 18 April, 1874 in Ogulin to father Vladimir, son of the first Croatian commoner Ban (Viceroy) Ivan Mažuranić, and mother Henrietta, née Bernath. Ivana comes from a family of six. She grew up with her parents and brothers Božidar (Darko) and Želimir (Željko) and sister Aleksandra (Alka). Ivana was the eldest of four children. Her father Vladimir, a state attorney in Ogulin, also performed the duties of the sub-prefect in Karlovac and Jastrebarsko, which is why Ivana moved a lot during her childhood. Finally, in 1882 the family settled in Zagreb where Vladimir Mažuranić took a post in the Government’s Department of Internal Affairs. In her Autobiography, Ivana mentions two childhood trips to her native Ogulin: during her first visit to Ogulin in 1880, the mountain Klek made a strong impression on her. When she returned to her home town in 1886, Mount Klek and the city of Ogulin inspired her to write her first poem: To the Star of My Homeland. Ivana successfully completed two years at a girls’ school in Zagreb, but was mostly home-schooled. Ivana Mažuranić married Vatroslav Brlić on 18 April, 1892 in Zagreb (the day of her 18th birthday). After the wedding, Ivana and her husband moved to Brod, to the Brlić family house. They had seven children in their marriage, two of whom unfortunately died as newborns, and five children lived to adulthood. Ivana’s first child – her daughter Nada – was born on January 30, 1893. Her son Ivan was born in 1894; the following year she gave birth to another son, Vladimir, but he died soon after birth. In 1897 she gave birth to her second daughter Zora; the third daughter, Zdenka, came in 1899. In 1902 her son Nikola was born, but he too died soon after birth. In 1917 Ivana gave birth to her youngest daughter Nedjeljka (Neda). In 1902, her first book The Good and the Naughty was self-published and primarily intended for family members, friends and acquaintances. In her Autobiography (1916), Ivana notes her reasons for (not) pursuing a literary career: she points out that, being a woman, she was taught that family, domestic, marital and parental duties always came first. This was in direct conflict with her literary ambitions which, as a result, were for the most part suppressed, with occasional outbursts in the form of her girlhood diary. However, the birth and upbringing of her own children gave Ivana a new stimulus and a ‘legitimate’ reason to write.
In the period from 1902 to1916, Ivana published five books: The Good and the Naughty, School and Holidays, Images, The Marvellous Adventures of Hlapić the Apprentice and Tales of Long Ago. In 1916, the first edition of Tales of Long Ago – containing six fairy tales (How Quest Sought the Truth, Fisherman Plunk and His Wife, Reygoch, Stribor’s Forest, Little Brother Primrose and Sister Lavender, Bridesman Sun and Bride Bridekins) – was published, and she wrote two more fairy tales – Toporko the Wanderer and the Nine Princes and Yagor – which were added to the third edition of Tales of Long Ago published in 1926. The year 1923 was marked by the death of Ivana’s husband Vatroslav and the publication of A Book for Youth. In 1924, the collection of fairy tales Tales of Long Ago was translated into English and published in London by Allen & Unwin under the title Croatian Tales of Long Ago. The 1920s were a period of continuous writing, as well as the first translations of her books into foreign languages – mostly due to the efforts of her brother Želimir who was her biggest support. In 1929, she became a member of PEN, and in 1931 Gavro Manojlović, at that time the President of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts (JAZU) nominated her as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. In the meantime, Gavro Manojlović nominated her for the Nobel Prize again in 1935, 1937 and 1938. In 1937, Ivana became the first female (correspondent) member of JAZU. Her adolescent novel Jaša Dalmatin, the Viceroy of Gujarat was published in 1937. She passed away on 21 September, 1938.