He was born on 18 October 1874 in Tajov, after which he chose his pseudonym. He graduated from the teachers' institute in Kláštor pod Znievom (1889 - 1893) and worked as a teacher in Banská Bystrica and in villages in the Horehronie and Považie regions. Later he graduated from the Commercial Academy in Prague (1898 - 1900) and worked as a bank clerk in Trnava, Martin, Nadlak. From 1910 to 1912 he was the head of the Tatra Bank branch in Prešov. From 1912 he was the secretary of the Slovak National Party in Martin, where he became the editor of the National Herald after its activities were discontinued. In 1915 he enlisted on the Eastern Front, joined the foreign resistance and joined the Czechoslovak legions. After the war he settled in Martin, but from 1920 he was the head of the legionary office in Bratislava. In 1925 he retired and devoted himself only to literary activities. He died on 20 May 1940 in Bratislava.
Tajovský is one of the top representatives of Slovak literary realism and the founder of realistic drama. His works are connected with current political and social issues, and in addition to criticism, he often used humorous tuning of stories set in a village or small-town environment. He published prose collections Besednice, Smutné nôty, Rozprávky pro folk, Volebné rozprávky, Spod kosy, Tŕpky, Slovenské obrázky, Na fronty a iné rozprávky, Rozprávky o československé leggiách v Rusku, but his best known stories are Maco Mlieč, Mamka Pôstková, Na chlieb, Horký chlieb and Mišo. During his stay in Prešov, he wrote the one-act play Sin, the prose poems Gypsies, Twelve Souls and Heavy Struggle, as well as the autobiographical features When I Was in Prešov, From Prešov to Ujheľ and Behind Záborský's Manuscripts. Tajovský's plays Promises, The Women's Law, Mother, New Life, Sin, In the Service, The Confused Farm, The Death of Ďurka Langsfeld, The Blúznivci and The Hero are still part of the repertoire of Slovak theatres today. In Prešov, a street is named after him.
Source: Regional Library P. O. Hviezdoslav in Prešov; Micro-project.
Photo source: Author: photo from archive from 100 years ago - own, Free work, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8959440
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literature, officialdom, pedagogy
