Josef Svatopluk Machar | |
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Josef Svatopluk Machar before 1923
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Born |
Kolín, Kingdom of Bohemia, Austrian Empire |
29 February 1864
Died | 17 March 1942 Prague, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia |
(aged 78)
Resting place | Brandýs nad Labem |
Occupation | Writer, journalist |
Nationality | Czech |
Josef Svatopluk Machar ([ˈjosɛf ˈsvatopluk ˈmaxar]; 1864 – 1942) was a Czech poet and essayist. A leader of the realist movement in Czech poetry and a master of colloquial Czech, Machar was active in anti-Austrian political circles in Vienna. Many of his poems were satires of political and social conditions. In the poetic cycle The Conscience of the Ages (1901–1921), of which Golgotha was the initial volume, he contrasted antique with Christian civilization, favoring the former. His Magdalena (1894, translated into English by Leo Wiener, 1916), a satirical novel in verse, concerns the treatment of women. Both Machar's use of colloquial diction and his brilliantly expressed skepticism greatly influenced Czech literature and public opinion. He was the father of Sylva Macharová, one of the first Czech nurses and first head of the Czech School of Nursing.
Several works by Josef Svatopluk Machar on the website of the Municipal Library in Prague (in Czech)