Vladimír Holan

Vladimír Holan was born in Prague on 16 September 1905 and grew up at the foot of the Bezděz; still a secondary-school pupil, he published a first collection that he later disowned as a sin of youth. He spent seven years as an employee of a pension fund, then became an editor of the review Život, and translated Rilke and Baudelaire. A Communist from 1946, he was almost unable to publish after 1950 and lived in seclusion from 1948 to 1968 on the island of Kampa. Named National Artist in 1968, he stopped writing on the death of his daughter Kateřina and died in Prague on 31 March 1980.

In the catalogue 1

• PoetryA Night with HamletNoc s HamletemVladimír Holan · 1964Literature