Antun Branko Šimić, an expressionist poet, was born in Drinovci near Grude on November 18, 1898 to parents, Vida and Martin Šimić. He attended primary school in his native village, and then the first three grades of the Franciscan classical high school in Široki Brijeg. He decided to change schools in his fourth year and went to Mostar and afterwards to Vinkovci. His unruly spirit made him change his surroundings again and so he continued his education in Zagreb, in the upper town high school.
In 1917, he started a journal for art and culture called Vijavica (Whirlwind), which forced him to leave school. This is when he lost his parents' support and it also meant a hard life overpowered by many illnesses. After publishing four issues of Vijavica, he followed the example of German journal Der Sturm and launched another journal, Juriš (Attack), which likewise had a short life of three issues only. He went on writing poems, literary and art critiques and also translating. He often had to live in impoverished circumstances which caused many illnesses, so he went back to Drinovci and made up with his father.
When he returned to Zagreb he launched his third journal, Književnik (Writer). At the Faculty of Philosophy he met Tatjana Marinić to whom he dedicated his one and only collection, Preobraženja (Metamorphoses) in 1920. He contracted tuberculosis and died on 2 May 1925 in a hospital in Zagreb.
Šimić did not write a large literary opus during his lifetime. However, some of his poems could be called anthological, like Pjesnici (Poets), Veče i ja (The Evening and I), Opomena (Warning), Ručak siromaha (The Poor Man's Dinner), Žene pred uredima (Women in Front of Offices), Smrt i ja (Death and I), Pjesma jednom brijegu (Poem to a Mountain), Smrt (Death), and some others. After writing under the influence of Matoš, Kranjčević, Vidrić and Domjanić, he bore down on the traditionalists and started favouring an unrestrained expression and expressionist spirit. In his collection Preobraženja (Metamorphoses), using free verse, he wrote tersely, rhythmically, gnomically and logically.
He would also sometimes recourse to the decasyllabic line and the folk lament. His themes were often man, pain, poverty, stars, Herzegovina, the poor, life and death ("death is something quite human"). When he turns to the man he warns him: Be careful not to go, small as thou are, under the stars, man, (from the poem Warning). When he writes about mystery and perseverance, he says: We watch each other silently. Mountain and man. I'll never know where our different meanings meet- (Poem to a Mountain).
The image of A.B. Šimić can be seen on 20 KM banknote of Bosnia and Herzegovina