Ćosić was born as Borisav Ž. Ćosić in 1921 in the village of Velika Drenova near Trstenik, Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Some sources have incorrectly stated his birthdate as January 4, 1922. Before the Second World War he was able to attend vocational agriculture school in Aleksandrovac. He joined the communist youth organization in Negotin in 1939. When the Second World War reached Yugoslavia in 1941, he joined the communist partisans. After the liberation of Belgrade in October 1944, he remained active in communist leadership positions, including work in the Serbian republican Agitation and Propaganda commission and then as a people's representative from his home region. In the early 1950s, he visited the Goli otok concentration camp, where the Yugoslav authorities imprisoned political opponents of the Communist Party. Ćosić maintains that he did so in order to better understand the Stalinist mind. In 1961, he joined Marshal Tito on a 72-day tour by presidential yacht (the Galeb) to visit eight African non-aligned countries. The trip aboard the Galeb highlighted the close, affirmative relationship that Ćosić had with the administration until the early 1960s. Dobrica Ćosić died on 18 May 2014 in his home near Belgrade. He was 92 years old.

Maksimović was born on May 16, 1898 in Rabrovica, near Valjevo, the oldest child of father Mihailo, a teacher, and mother Draginja. Right after her birth, her father was transferred, and they moved to Brankovina, where Desanka spent her childhood. She graduated from the gymnasium in Valjevo and the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy. In August 1933 she married Sergij Slastikov, but they had no children of their own. Maksimović was a professor of Serbian language from 1923 until 1953 in several schools. First, she was a teacher at the Obrenovac gymnasium, then she moved to the Third Female Gymnasium in Belgrade. Eventually, she was transferred to the teachers' school in Dubrovnik, where she spent one year. After that, she worked in First female gymnasium in Belgrade. One of her best students was Mira Alečković, who also became a poet and a close friend of Desanka Maksimović.

Her statue in Valjevo
When she heard of German soldiers shooting primary school children in Kragujevac, she wrote "Krvava Bajka" (trans. "The Legend of Blood" or, more literally "A Bloody Fairy Tale"), a poem that speaks of the terror practiced by German army in World War II. The poem was not published until after the war had ended. She traveled across Yugoslavia, and befriended writers and poets such as Miloš Crnjanski, Ivo Andrić, Gustav Krklec, Isidora Sekulić, and Branko Ćopić. Her poetry spoke about love and patriotism; it was enthusiastic and youthful, yet serious and sensitive. It is said[who?] that the Serbian language is best sung in the poems of Desanka Maksimović. Some of her best poems include: "Anticipation" ("Предосећање"), "Tremble" ("Стрепња"), "Spring poem" ("Пролећна песма"), "Warning" ("Опомена"), "In storm" ("На бури"), "I seek amnesty" ("Тражим помиловање"), "Sheared meadow" ("Покошена ливада") etc. Maksimović won a number of literature awards among them Vuk Award, Njegoš Award (1984) and AVNOJ Award. She was elected as honorary citizen of Valjevo. In 1985, the primary school in Brankovina, where she began her education, was reconstructed. It was in this school that her father worked as teacher. Local people called it "Desanka's school", and that is now its official name. While she was still alive, a statue of her was built in Valjevo, although she objected to it. Because of the undying value of her poetry, Desanka Maksimović was elected on December 17, 1959 as an associate member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU), and on December 16, 1965 she became a regular member.

Desanka Maksimović died on February 11, 1993, in Belgrade, at the age of 95. She was buried in Brankovina, where she grew up. After her death, the Desanka Maksimović Foundation was founded. This foundation organizes Desanka Maksimović award.

Ćopić was a Bosnian Serb born in the village of Hašani near Bosanska Krupa.He attended schools in Bihać, Banja Luka, Sarajevo and Karlovac before moving to Belgrade to study at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy until his graduation in 1940.

Upon the uprising in the Bosanska Krajina in 1941, he joined the Partisans and remained in their ranks until the end of World War II. That period of his life influenced much of his literary work as can be seen by the themes he later writes about. At the end of the war he returned to Belgrade where he was, until 1949, the director of a children's magazine called "Pioniri". From 1951 until his death he was a professional writer.

His books have been translated into Albanian, Czech, English, Dutch, Italian, Macedonian, Mandarin, Cantonese, Polish, Romanian, Turkish, Slovak, German, French, and Russian, and some of them have been turned into TV series. He was featured on the 0.50 Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark bill, which has been withdrawn from circulation and replaced with coins.

Ćopić committed suicide, jumping off Branko's Bridge in central Belgrade. He is buried in the city's New Cemetery.

He edited magazines "Sedmica","Srpski dnevnik" and "Danica". First number od "Danica" megazine was published on 20th February 1860 and last on 20th of August 1872. Because of that magazine, he got nickname "Daničar".

Daničareva street in Belgrade got nam from Popović nickname.

Đorđe Krstić was a renowned Serbian realist painter. He is often ranked alongside his contemporaries, Paja Jovanović and Uroš Predić. Krstić finished his education in Munich, Germany, where he began his early works under the influence of German realism up until 1883. Some significant works of this early period include The Drowning Maiden, Anatomist, and The Gospel Writer. In Serbia, Krstić moved his style of painting from a realist tone to a more idyllic one, with paintings such as Kosovo Field Landscape, From the Surroundings of Čačak, From Leskovac, Studenica, and Žiča. In his later years, Krstić began painting a number of iconostases in Čurug and Niš, of which include the controversial Death of Prince Lazar.

Jovanović was born in Novi Sad where he spent his first three years. Then, his family moved to Pazarevac. He studied at Kragujevac where he obtained his baccalauréat (high school diploma) in 1882.

In 1884, he obtained a state grant to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna where he started studying Arts. He also studied at Munich. After completing his undergraduate studies in 1887, he lived between Munich, Paris and Belgrade. In Paris, he improved his art with Henri Chapu and Jean Antoine Injalbert. In 1889, at the World Exhibition in Paris, he won a prize for the "Gusle" and then, in 1900, at the World Exhibition in Paris, he won the greatest award for the "Kosovo Monument".

He was very prolific, and many of his realisations can be seen in Serbia, and in particular in Belgrade. Jovanović married Emma Victoria Scheitler on 26 September 1889. They had two sons: Mirko (1892–1915) and Branko (1895–1939). After Emma Victoria died in 1928 near Munich, Jovanović married Marguerite Robert (1879–1965).