(1888 - 1983)
Dora Gabe was born in the village of Harmanlak, Dobrich region. She finished her secondary education in Varna, was admitted to study Natural Sciences at the University of Sofia (1904) and went on to do French Philology in Geneva and Grenoble (1905-1906). She was a founding member of the Bulgarian-Polish Committee (1922), and of the Bulgarian PEN-Club (1927), which she presided over for many years. She was a cultural-issues advisor at the Bulgarian Embassy in Warsaw (1947-1950) and the Bulgarian representative at the international congresses of the PEN-Clubs. Her literary debut is very much associated with the names of such men of letters as Pencho Slaveykov, P. K. Yavorov, and Boyan Penev. She is the author of the following collections of poems: Temenugi [Pansies] (1908), Zemen pat [Earthly Path] (1928), Lunatichka [Lunatic] (1932), Pochakay, slantse! [Oh, Sun, Wait!] (1967), Nevidimi ochi [Invisible Eyes] (1970), Sgastena tishina [Thicker Silence] (1973), Glabini [Depths] (1976), Svetat e tayna [The World is a Secret] (1982). She published short stories, travel writing, essays, impressions, memoirs and criticism.

Dora Gabe has a notable contribution to Bulgarian children’s literature – she is the author of numerous collections of short stories, novellas, fairy tales, poems and rhymes for kids. She was also the editor of the Biblioteka za nay-malkite [A Library for the Youngest] series and of the Prozorche magazine. She used to translate from the Polish, Czech, Russian, French, and Greek languages.

Dora Gabe is among the most memorable figures of women in Bulgarian literature.

Her 1976 collection of poems has been rendered into English by John Robert Colombo and Nikola Roussanoff as Depths: Conversations with the Sea.

 

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All spellings; Gabe, Dora; Габе, Дора