KOLLAR, kol'Uir, JAN (1793-1852). A cele brated Czech, poet and scholar. Ile was horn in the County of TurSez, Hungary, studied at Press burg and Jena, and in 1819 became a preacher in an Evangelical church in Pestle. Sorrow at separation from a sweetheart of his student days was the immediate stimulus of his first poetic Production, Bdsne7 (Poems, 1821), consisting of 76 sonnets. In 1824 the collection had become 150, published under the title Sldvy Deere (Daughter of Slava), and the final edition (1851) contained 645 sonnets, divided into live parts. This is a glorification of the Slavic race—Shiva —between whom and his 'Mina' his heart is divided. Though uneven in composition, the work in many parts rises to heights of passionate enthusiasm. It was written in Czech with a con siderable admixture of Middle Slovenian peculi arities, which laid the foundations of the present Slovak literary. language. Ilis love for the Slays impelled him to devote himself to collecting folk songs, at first (18122 and 1827) in collaboration with t:afa•k (q.v.), and later (1834-35) alone.
The results of his labors appeared under the title Popu-lar Songs of lbc Slovaks in Hungary. After years of efforts, with the help of the Austrian Government, Kolhir obtained for his native Slo vaks from the Magyars the independence of their schools in 1820, and the Chu•eh in 1833. In 1837 he published his work On the Literary Recipro city Among the Various Families and Dialects of the Slays (2d ed. 1884), wherein he argued in favor of the Slavic unification which he had pro claimed in his Daughter of Stara. After con tinuous annoyancl* he removed from Pesth to Vienna. Here he was a confidential adviser of the Government, and the Slovaks of Hungary hailed him as their literary spokesman. In 184'J Ire was appointed professor of Slavic arehmology in the University of Vienna, which position he held until his death. A posthumous edition of his works appeared in Prague (4 vols., 1862-64). It is incomplete, but it contains an autobiog raphy dealing with the earlier part of his life.