The poet, critic and literary journal editor Branimir Wiesner Livadić (Samobor, 30 September 1871 – Zagreb, 30 July 1949) came from the well-known Samobor family of Wiesner, whose founding figure, Ferdo, was a celebrated Illyrian composer — known for Juran i Sofija, Još Hrvatska ni propala and others — who Croatianised his surname to Livadić. Branimir completed his primary schooling in his home town and attended secondary school in Zagreb. He studied philosophy and German studies in Zagreb and then in Vienna, where he took his doctorate in 1895. As a secondary-school teacher he served in Senj, Zagreb, Varaždin and Karlovac. He served twice as director of the Acting School and Drama Company at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb. He wrote poetry, novellas and criticism. His prose works are imbued with modernism. He was among the most radical modernists both in his prose and in his critical writing. In 1895 he published in Sarajevo's literary journal Nada — then edited by the celebrated Croatian poet S. S. Kranjčević — an experiential poem entitled "Na Okić-gradu" ("At Okić Castle"), which came into being after one of his many excursions into the landscapes, heights and panoramas of the Okić area.
My chest heaves upon this crag...
Neither in the air nor on the ground am I truly at home;
— As a child clings to its mother's white neck —
I embrace the cloudbanks at this height.
And above me an old hawk snarls,
cursing the peaks that lift men up...
— Let them gaze up at me from below,
let them marvel!
Heights deceive the human eye.
