Rade Drainac, born Radojko Jovanovic (Trbunje near Blace at Spas, 1899 - Belgrade, 1943) was a poet, writer, and journalist. He attended elementary school in Blace, and high school in Krusevac. In November, 1915, as a high school student,  he joined the Serbian army's retreat through Kosovo, Montenegro, Shkodra and Albania. In early January 1916, together with other refugees, mostly students, and thanks to the Red Cross, he arrived in Marseilles. His high school education continued in various areas of France. He wrote his first poem  in 1916 as a student of the Lyceum in Lyon.

In the fall of the 1919, after a short stay in the heart of bohemian Paris,  he returned to Belgrade. In 1921, Drainac started working as a journalist and published his first collections of poetry Blue Laughter and Aphrodite and Garden. In 1922 and 1923, he edited and published two issues of the magazine "Hipnos," in which his platform and poetic creativity were marked with deconcentration motivated by intuition, and close to dreaming and ecstasy. Before the end of 1923 he became a permanent collaborator of the daily newspaper "Samouprava / Self - government",and  published two books of verses Erotikon (1923) and Train Departs (1923).He acted as editor, literary and theater critic and chronicler, prose writer and author of the travelogue reports published in "Self - government".

Drainac visited Paris during January - May 1936, where he wandered around cafes and different quarters frequented by bohemians, in an effort to fuse his personality with the image of the poet – wanderer Vijonom (J. Nesic). Upon his return, in collaboration with M. De Buolly  Drainac published Two Adventure Poems: his Disembarkation and de Boully's Ikson. He continued to publish collections of poetry such as Bandit or Poet (1928) Banquet (1930) Ulysses (1938). At the same time he expanded the formal and literary aspects of his creativity: Heart at the market (1929), Flame in the Desert (autobiographical romance novel, published in the newspaper "News" in December, 1928, while the book first appeared in 1993), Spanish Wall and Our Love (1930).

Drainac's activity during the thirties was marked by his publication of newspapers and magazines: "Front", "Images of Current Events" and "New Ridge", and public conflict and controversy with Surrealists and representatives of social literature. He was still attracted to journalism and from 1929 – 1936 he became a permanent associate of the Belgrade's Pravda / Justice. He was the author of numerous articles and travelogues based on his frequent travels in the country and abroad. At the end of his life he wrote the autobiographical chronicle Black Days, about the beginnings of World War II. Some aspects of his work connected him with "Zenit", although he wasn't its member, nor was he a collaborator. His closeness and appreciation of Zenitism was expressed by congratulating Micic from Paris, on the occasion of the magazine's anniversary. It highlighted the theme of Barbarogenious and expressed optimistic belief in the victorious campaign of Zenitism against Europe.

V. Golubovic