Bohumil Říha

Bohumil Říha ( born February 27, 1907 in Vyšetice, † 15 December 1987 in Prague) was a Czech novelist and children's book author.

Life

One of his best known works was his children's dictionary of 1959. For " Jindra and the Baroness " he received in 1960 a special prize of the Czech Ministry of Culture. His children's books have been translated into many languages. In 1980 he received the Hans Christian Andersen Award. In German his books have been published, among others, in very widespread and long print runs in the series: The little trumpeter books and the Compass library of the GDR.

Works

• The children's book Adam and Otka is about the eight -year-old brother and sister visited her aunt in Prague and there gets to know the world of the streetcar.
• The novel chalice and sword is a historical novel set at the time of the Hussite movement. It shows the first Defenestration of Prague, and as the Hussite masses in Prague churches and monasteries forcibly subdue the chalice.

• The novel Doctor Meluzín: The circumstances of his life and the separation from his wife bring the dreiundfünfzigjährigen Dr. Meluzín to give up his position as chief physician of a Prague hospital. He goes to the country to practice there in an ambulance. Soon he realizes that he does not feel comfortable on the village and just flees to himself and to his empty inner world. Him torments the failure of his marriage and by giving up the position in Prague now even the failure of the profession. Soon the reservations fall against the country life and he begins to add to the situation and to make the new beginning for the best. Title of the Czech original is: "Doctor Meluzín ". " A unpathetischer, entertaining novel" (quote: from the blurb )