The year of Jovan Dučić’s birth is disputable. Pero Slijepčević states that Dučić was born, most probably, in 1872 in Trebinje. Majority of researchers state that he was born in 1874. Svetozar Ćorović, in his memoirs states the year of his birth to be 1872. The date of his birth could be either 15 June or 15 July. Dučić’s father, Andrija, was killed during the Herzegovinian rebellion in 1875 and was buried in Dubrovnik. His mother, Joka, had a daughter Mileva in her marriage with Andrija and two more children (Risto and Soka) from her first marriage with Šćepan Glogovac.
1878 – in line with the Berlin Congress provision, Trebinje is part of Austro-Hungarian Empire. Dučić goes to school in Trebinje and, later, completes the trade school in Mostar.
1890 – 1891 – he attends the Teachers School in Sarajevo.
1891 – 1893 – he completes the Teachers School in Sombor and gets appointed as a teacher in Bijeljina wherefrom the authorities expel him to the Žitomislić monastery on political grounds.
1895 – 1899 – Dučić works as a teacher in the Serbian school in Mostar. He is a member of the ‘Gusle’ association and the founder and a member of the editorial board of the literary magazine ‘Zora’. During the last year of his stay in Mostar he and his friend, the writer, Svetozar Ćorović get arrested and fired. The same year, he leaves for Geneva to study at the Faculty of Philosophy and Sociology. He keeps in touch with a number of his friends, writers in Mostar. He meets Skerlić in Paris and works for many newspapers and magazines (‘Letopis’, ‘Zora’, ‘Srpski književni glasnik’).
1900 – his mother dies.
1901 – his first book (‘Pjesme’) is published by ‘Zora’ in Mostar.
1906 – he graduates from faculty and the following year finds employment as a scribe in the Ministry of foreign affairs in Belgrade.
1908 – he works as an editor of the literary chronicle in ‘Politika’. Srpske književne novine publishes his book ‘Pesme’ while he publishes his other two books – lyrics and poetry in fiction – ‘Plave legende’ and ‘Pesme’.
1910 – he is appointed the attaché in the embassy in Constantinople and, during the same year, get redeployed to Sofia to the same position.
1911 – his book ‘Pesme’ is published by the Cvijanovićs.
1912-1927 – he works as a secretary and, later, as an attaché in the embassies in Rome, Athens, Madrid, Cairo, as well as a delegate in the League of Nations in Geneva.
He was elected a correspondent member of the Serbian Royal Academy.
1929 – he edits his collected works (‘Pesme sunca’ and ‘Pesme ljubavi’). Two years later, following his early retirement, he is reappointed as an attaché in Cairo.
1930 – the third volume of his Collected Works is published, as well as ‘Carski soneti’, ‘Plave legende’ and ‘Gradovi i himere’.
1931 – he is elected a full member of the Serbian Royal Academy and appointed an ambassador in Budapest.
1932 – a book of his essays ‘Blago Cara Radovana’ is published.
1933-1941 – he is an attaché in Rome and later in Bucharest where is promoted to the position of an ambassador and sent to Madrid where he stays until the beginning of WWII.
1941-1943 – he lives at his cousin’s place in Gera (Indiana, USA). His book ‘Grof Sava Vladisavić’ is published. Concerned over the developments in Yugoslavia and the suffering of Serbs, he publishes political pamphlets and writes for Serbian press in the USA.
1943 – he dies in Gera and is buried there. On the day of his death his book ‘Lirika’ is published. His remains are transferred to be buried in the Serbian Othodox Monastery of St Sava in Libertyville.
Today, the grave of this great Serbian poet is in the Hercegovačka Gračanica church in his hometown Trebinje.