Jaroslav Kořán
| Jaroslav Kořán | |
|---|---|
Kořán in December 2012
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| Mayor of Prague | |
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In office February 1, 1990 – September 13, 1991 |
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| Preceded by | Josef Hájek |
| Succeeded by | Milan Kondr |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
January 17, 1940 Prague, Czechoslovakia |
| Died | June 2, 2017 (aged 77) |
| Alma mater | Academy of Performing Arts in Prague |
Jaroslav Kořán (January 17, 1940 – June 2, 2017) was a Czech translator, writer, screenwriter, and politician. A dissident and signatory of Charter 77 during Czechoslovakia's Communist era, Kořán translated over seven dozen books, mostly by American writers, from English into Czech, including major works by Kurt Vonnegut, Henry Miller, Roald Dahl, Ken Kesey, Charles Bukowski, John Kennedy Toole, and John Wyndham.
Kořán was one of the co-founders of the Civic Forum (OF) political movement in November 1989. In February 1990, Kořán was elected Mayor of Prague, becoming the city's first non-Communist since 1948. He served as mayor until September 1991.
Kořán studied drama and film at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. He then wrote documentary screenwriter and radio plays before transitioning to television journalism. However, in 1973, he and several friends were arrested for singing anti-Russian songs at a restaurant. Kořán was sentenced to one year in prison for "slandering the state and hooliganism" due to the song. After his release, Kořán worked as an engineer digging trenches in the Prague sewer system.
Despite these setbacks, Kořán translated more than 70 works of American literature into Czech during the 1970s and 1980s. Some of the major works he translated included books authored by Kurt Vonnegut, Henry Miller, Roald Dahl, and Ken Kesey. Kořán's tranlation of Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five", was uncredited because Kořán was serving his one year prison term at the time of its publication.
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