Ivan Minchov Vazov was born on the 9th July 1850 (although that date is disputed) in the town of Sopot, in Bulgaria, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire.

After primary education at the local school he was sent to Kalofer to continue his studies and work as an assistant teacher. He later spent a short time in Plodiv where he began to write poetry.

Fascinated by literature he abandoned work as an apprentice to move to Brăila, in Romania, where he lived with exiled revolutionaries and befriended the poet Hristo Botev.

By 1874, he had joined the struggle for independence from the Ottomans and returned to Sopot. After the failure of the 1876 uprising he had to flee the country, going back to Galaţi, in Romania, where most of the surviving revolutionaries were exiled. There he was appointed a secretary of the committee.

In 1876 he published his first work, ‘Priaporetz and Gusla’, followed by ‘Bulgaria's Sorrows’ in 1877.

Bulgaria regained its independence in 1878 as a result of the Russo-Turkish War and Vazov wrote the famous ‘Epic of the Forgotten’. He now became the editor of the political reviews Science and Dawn.

Exile was forced upon him once again due to the persecution of the Russophile political faction. Later he returned to Bulgaria with his mother’s help, and started teaching and then became a civil servant.

He moved to Sofia in 1889 where he started publishing the review Dennitsa.

His 1888 novel ‘Under the Yoke’, depicting Ottoman oppression, is his most famous work and has been translated into over 30 languages.

During his life he became a prominent and widely respected figure in the social and cultural life of Bulgaria.

In 1917, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature.

Ivan Vazov died on September 22nd, 1921. He was 71.