Laza Kostić was born in 1841 in
Kovilj,
Vojvodina—which was then part of the
Austrian Empire—to a military family. Kostić graduated from the Law School of the
University of Budapest and received a
Doctor of Philosophy in
jurisprudence at the same university in 1866. A part of his thesis was about the
Dušan's Code. After completing his studies, Kostić occupied several positions and was active in cultural and political life in
Novi Sad,
Belgrade, and
Montenegro. He was one of the leaders of
Ujedinjena omladina srpska (United Serb Youth) and was elected a Serbian representative to the Hungarian parliament, thanks to his mentor
Svetozar Miletić. Because of his liberal and nationalistic views, Kostić had to leave
Austria-Hungary. He returned home after several years in Belgrade and Montenegro. From 1869 to 1872, Kostić was the president of Novi Sad's Court House and was virtually the leader of his party in his county. He was a delegate in the clerico-secular
Sabor at
Sremski Karlovci several times. He served as Lord Mayor of Novi Sad twice and also twice as
Sajkasi delegate to the Parliament in Budapest. Kostić was arrested and incarcerated but like the rest of them he was later released. In 1868, the new Prince of Serbia was the fourteen-year-old
Milan IV Obrenović, who had fallen in love with Laza's most recent work
Maksim Crnojević, which had been released that year. Kostić moved to Belgrade, where he became a popular figure as a poet. Through Milan's influence, Kostić obtained the position of editor of
Srpsku nezavisnost (Serbian Independence), an influential political and literary magazine. Milan chose him to be
Jovan Ristić's principal assistant at the 1878
Congress of Berlin and in 1880 Kostić was sent to
Saint Petersburg as a member of the Serbian delegation. where he met intellectuals
Simo Matavulj,
Pavel Rovinsky, and
Valtazar Bogišić. In 1890, Kostić moved to
Sombor where he married Julijana Palanački in September 1895 and spent the rest of his life there. In Sombor he wrote a book which describes his dreams
Dnevnik snova (
Diary of Dreams), and the popular poem
Santa Maria della Salute, which is considered the finest example of his
love poems and
elegies. Kostić has been following two lines in his work and research: theoretical mind cannot reach absolute, not having the richness of fascination and life necessary to its universality. He was opposed to the
anthropological philosophy of
Svetozar Marković and the views of revolutionist and materialist
Nikolay Chernyshevsky. He died on 27 November 1910 in Vienna. ==Verse and prose==