Yordan Yovkov has the reputation, along with Elin Pelin, of being one of the two outstanding Bulgarian prose writers in the period between the world wars. Of the many attempts to characterize him, "visionary realist," "dreamer," and "bard of Dobruja" are the ones that best capture his distinctive features. Yovkov is called a visionary realist and a dreamer because in his works the realistic details are always refracted through the prism of his memories and dreams. Moreover, he staunchly guarded the sovereignty of his fictional world by declining all invitations to visit the places described in his works. The third characterization, bard of Dobruja, notes the most frequent setting in Yovkov's writings, the large plain in northeastern Bulgaria.

Yordan Stefanov Yovkov was born on 9 November 1880 in the village of Zheravna in the Sliven district. He was the fifth child of Stefan Yovkov and Pena Boychova. Yovkov's father, like...