Ivan Diviš

Ivan Diviš (September 18, 1924, Prague – April 7, 1999, Prague) was a significant Czech poet and essayist of the 2nd half of the 20th century.

Biography

He was born to a family of a bank officer. While he was studying at high school in Prague during World War II he was arrested by Gestapo and imprisoned in Pečkárna and Pankrác. Since 1942 he worked in a bookstore, and in the end of the war he was employed at V. Petr publisher. After passing maturita he studied philosophy and aesthetics at Charles University (1945-49). In the early 1950s he worked as a corrector at Communist Rudé právo newspaper. After 1953 he worked as a latheman in Liberec and Prague-Kbely. In the 1960s he was an editor of Mladá fronta publishing house. In 1964 he converted to be a Roman Catholic. After the Prague Spring reverse he emigrated to West Germany in 1969 and worked for Radio Free Europe. He lived in Munich.

Works

* "Balada z regálu" (1946, with Kamil Bednář, illustrated by Václav Bláha)
* "První hudba bratřím" (1947)
* "Uzlové písmo" (1960)
* "Rozpleť si vlasy" (1961)
* "Deník molekuly" (1962)
* "Eliášův oheň" (1962)
* "Morality" (1963)
* "Chrlení krve" (1964)
* "Umbriana" (1965)
* "V jazyku Dolor" (1966)
* "Povíme si to!" (1967)
* "Sursum" (1967, 2nd edition 1987 in Munich)
* "Thanathea" (1968)
* "Noé vypouští krkavce" (1975 in Toronto, revised 1995)
* "Přece jen" (1977 in Munich)
* "Křížatky" (1978 in Munich)
* "Průvan" (1978 Pondicherry)
* "Beránek na sněhu" (1980, 1994 in Munich)
* "Odchod z Čech" (1981, 1990 in Munich)
* "Žalmy" (186, 1991 revised in London)
* "Obrať koně" (1987, 1992 in Tessing)
* "Moje oči musely vidět" (1991)

See also

* List of Czech writers

External links

* [http://www.ned.univie.ac.at/lic/autor.asp?paras=/lg;4/aut_id;16590/ Biographical data] (in English)
* [http://www.tyden.cz/text.asp?rid=9&show=text&tid=15437 Magazine Týden: article "14. 5. 1960 – Ivan Diviš začíná psát Teorii spolehlivosti" of May 9, 2005] (in Czech)