Ljubiša Rajić, professor of Scandinavian languages and literatures at the University of Belgrade, died on June 4, 2012. Rajić was the founder of the Department of Scandinavian Languages and Literatures at Belgrade University’s Faculty of Philology (1988). From October 1990 to June 1994, he was the editor of the newspaper Republika. He leaves behind a long list of scholarly works, published in both Serbian and Scandinavian learned publications and corresponding media, as well as a large number of translations from scandinavian languages to Serbian and vice versa, most of them from and to Norwegian. He was honored by the following decorations: Knight of the Order of White Rose (Finland), Knight of the Royal Order of Polar Star (Sweden), and The Medal of St. Olaf. He was also the laureat of Academica award, as well as of an honorary award of Norwegian Free Speach Foundation, for his work on spreading Norwegian culture abroad, and of the award of the Swedish Authors’ Fund for his work on popularizing Swedish literature abroad.
The 20th Century Library published his first work, a collection of papers, entitled Theory and Poetics of Translation (1981), of which he was the editor. It also published two of his translations: Mose Jörgensen, A School Founded by Pupils (1979) and Thomas Hilan Ericsen The Tirany of the Moment (2003).