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Book Nook provides readers with insights into the world of books. Vick Mickunas takes you into the center of the publishing world with the latest book buzz, book reviews, and exclusive chats with authors..Home > Blogs > Book Nook > Archives > 2011 > December > 18 > Entry
Remembering Vaclav Havel
Vaclav Havel died today. The former Czech president was 75. Here’s more from the New York Times:
“Born on Oct. 5, 1936, Mr. Havel was one of two sons of Vaclav and Bozena Havel. His father, a civil engineer, was a major commercial real estate developer who acquired important property. When the Communists took power three years after World War II, the family holdings were taken over by the state. After Communist rule ended, Mr. Havel and his brother, Ivan, won back much of the property.
Mr. Havel would later write that his privileged upbringing heightened his sensitivity to inequality.
“I was different from my schoolmates whose families did not have domestics, nurses or chauffeurs,” he wrote. “But I experienced these differences as a disadvantage; I felt excluded from the company of my peers.”
He started writing, he said, to overcome his feeling of being an outsider. Because of his background, the Communists blocked him from going to university, and at age 15 he started work as a technician in a chemistry lab.
Mr. Havel was called up for military service in 1957, and wrote a satirical play while in the army. In 1960, he joined the Theater on the Balustrade as a stagehand. In 1963 he wrote his first publicly performed play, “The Garden Party,” about a person who has lost his sense of identity to such a degree that he goes to look for himself in his own apartment.
In 1956 Mr. Havel met Olga Splichalova, a lively, dashing actress, whom he married in 1964. A working- class heroine for many Czechs, she helped to inspire the collection of essays, written as letters from prison, and published as “Letters to Olga.” In dissident circles and beyond, Mr. Havel was a celebrated womanizer. Olga, who was fiercely defensive of her husband, was said by friends to have a certain reassurance when he was in prison, because “at least she knew where he was.”
When he became president, Mrs. Havel seldom took part in formal events, but used her new platform to campaign for the handicapped. She died of cancer in January 1996. They had no children.
Mr. Havel is survived by his wife, Dagmar, and his brother, Ivan.
After stepping down as president in 2003, Mr. Havel, ailing and tired, returned to writing, insisting he was happy with a peaceful life. In his memoir, “To the Castle and Back,” published in 2007, he called his political rise an accident of history. Post-Communist society disappointed him, he said.”
I had always dreamed of interviewing him. It wasn’t meant to be.
To read the entire obituary click HERE:
Vick Mickunas
p.s. Follow me on Twitter: @BookNookVick
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By bill
December 18, 2011 6:43 PM | Link to this
Havel once said “The government has embraced an arrogant ideology. They claim to know the key to prosperity. It’s analogous to communism. They thought the same thing. The clever ones - themselves - would run everything. That’s the analogy. The key to prosperity is to let things run themselves. We’ll liberalize everything, let everyone look after himself, let business, not the state, run the economy. The state should have no views, no policies of its own. Just open it all up, step back, let it go and you’ll see how well everything will work if we just leave things alone.”