Born 10 August 1922 in Klenovec into a craftsman family. He studied Slovak and German at Comenius University in Bratislava. From 1940 to 1944 he was an active participant in the Slovak National Uprising in the partisan brigade Jánošík. In December 1944 he was imprisoned in the concentration camp of Mauthausen and later in Dachau. After liberation he became an editor of the military daily Bojovník. Later he was the secretary of the Slovak Writers' Union and an editor, later the chief editor of Kultúrny Život (1953 - 1954) and Slovenské pohľady (1955 - 1956). From 1951 to 1953 he worked as the chief of the screenplay department in the state-owned Czechoslovak Films. From 1956 he pursued literary and cultural-political work. From 1974 to 1990 he chaired Matica Slovenská. He was a member of the parliament in 1990 - 1992. Mináč died 25 October 1996.
