Jiří Stránský

Jiří Stránský at Prague seat of International PEN (2007)

Jiří Stránský (born 12 August 1931 in Prague) is a Czech author, playwright, translator, former political prisoner of the communist regime, and human rights advocate. He is grandson of Czechoslovak politician Jan Malypetr.

In 1953 he was arrested by the communists and sentenced to eight years of forced labor for "treason". He was released in 1960. In 1974 he was arrested again, charged with embezzlement and sentenced to another 3,5 years, but was released after one and a half. While imprisoned, he met with several Catholic writers, an experience which encouraged him to become a writer.

After the fall of the communist regime, he has been an author and head of the international section of the Czech Literary Fund. In 1992, he was elected President of the Czech section of International PEN. He was chairman of the council of the National Library from 1995 to 1998.

He is a founding signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism.^[1]

Works

• Za plotem, written in prison (1953–1960), published 1999
• Štěstí, 1969, most copies were confiscated and destroyed by the communists, it was released in 1990
• Zdivočelá země, 1970, made into a film in 1997
• Aukce, 1997, sequel Zdivočelé země, 1989
• Přelet, 2001
• Povídačky pro moje slunce, 2002
• Tichá pošta, 2002
• Povídačky pro Klárku, 2004
• Perlorodky, 2005
• Srdcerváč, 2005
• Stařec a smrt, 2007

References