Josef Váchal

Josef Váchal ( born September 23, 1884 in Milavče, † May 10 1969 in Studeňany ) was a Czech writer, painter, graphic designer and typographer.

Life

Váchal was the illegitimate son of Josef Aleš - Lyžec and Anna Váchalova; his parents were never married. He was raised by his grandparents Jan Aleš and Jana Alešova, in the South Bohemian town of Pisek. Here he attended the high school, but from which he came off without a degree. 1898 moved Váchal to Prague, where he trained as a bookbinder and graduated with a cousin of his father, the painter Aleš, friendship.

In 1900 he wrote his first poems in 1903, he joined the Theosophical Society in Prague, in 1904 he enrolled at the Art Academy and was later in a renowned painter and graphic artist. In 1910 Váchal his first two books. Between January 1912 and January 1913 a short but intense friendship with the writer Jakub Deml joined him. In March 1913 Váchal Máša Pešulová married and became friends with the collector J. Portman; in whose house Portmoneum now houses the Váchal Museum in Litomyšl.

From 1916 to 1918 Váchal served on the Italian front. To demonstrate his opposition to the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Nazis, he exiled in 1940 were, from the metropolis of Prague in the village Studeňany west of Valdicka.

After the seizure of power by the communists in 1948 Váchal was outlawed as a writer because of his anti-Communist views; Home and property of his wife were seized in East Bohemia. During this period he continued living with the illegal distribution of his older works of art, as he thus was considered anti-social element in the communist regime for non- membership in the union as official artist and unemployed. He spent the 1960s as in deep poverty; he suffered hunger most of the time, had to satisfy his thirst winter with snow water, and for sleeping kept on his entire wardrobe to keep warm. However, he steadfastly refused his assent to any presentation of his works, although the rulers wanted to move him necessarily to cooperate.

Josef Váchal died in 1969 and was buried in the village Radim near Jičína in East Bohemia.

Works (selection)

• Krvavý román [ Bloody novel or novelette ] (published 1924)
• Mor v Korčule [ Plague in Korcula ] (published 1927)
• Malíř na fronte. Soca a Italie 1917-18 [ painter in the war. Soca and Italy 1917-18 ] ( published in 1929 )
• Šumava umírající a romantická [ Gabreta dying and romantic ] (published in 1932, 11 copies)
• Receptář barevného dřevorytu [ instructions for colored woodcut ] ( published in 1934 )
• Nejnovější Legatio mortuorum [Newest legatio mortuorum ] (published 1936)
• Kazani ad calendas Graecas [ sermon ad calendas Graecas ] ( published in 1939, 17 copies)
• Ďáblova odstředivka [ The Devil's spin dryer ] ( published in 1941, 10 copies )
• Čertova Babička [ devil's grandmother ] (written 1940-1948 )
• Moudrost Svobodného zednářství [ Wisdom of Freemasonry ] (written in 1951 )
• Mohelnský Robinson [ Robinson Mohelenská ] (written 1955)
• Živant a umrlanti [ survivors ( = Váchal ) and zombies ( = communists ) in the world ] (written 1956)
• Čarodějnice z Holešovic Neboli Vězeň v bolševickem Hradě [ The Witch of Holešovice or Prisoner of the Bolshevik Castle ] (written 1959)
• Paměti [ memories ] ( published in 1994 )
• Deníky 1922-1964 [ diaries ] ( published in 1998 )