Melantrich

Melantrich (Czech: Nakladatelství Melantrich - Publishing House Melantrich) was a large Czech language publishing house connected with the Czech National Social Party. Established in 1897, the publisher remained in existence until 1999.

In 1897 the Czech National Social Party (no relation to German National Socialism) was founded after a split within the Czechoslavonic Social Democratic Workers' Party. The new party set up a publishing house "Knihtiskárna národně sociálního dělnictva" ("Printing press of national socialist workers") on July 9, 1897. The party also started a daily, "Česká demokracie" ("The Czech Democracy"), led by Václav Klofáč, without much of success.

In 1907 Jaroslav Šalda, a talented worker from the printing press, together with Klofáč started a new daily "České slovo" ("The Czech Word"). The newspaper proved to be successful and in 1910 the publishing house bought building "Hvězda" ("The Star") on the Wenceslaus Square. The company adopted name "Melantrich" after a renaissance publisher Jiří Melantrich of Aventino (born Jiří Černý Rožďalovický; c.1511, Rožďalovice - November 19, 1580, Prague). The building was renamed to "Melantrich" after the 1922 reconstruction.

In 1919 the company, obtaining an official permit, started to publish several newspapers and journals (including the first tabloid in the Czech lands, "Pražský ilustrovaný zpravodaj"). In 1924 Melantrich became . In 1926 printing press "Koppe & Bellmann" from Smíchov was acquired. In 1928 a branch in Ostrava was established, in 1934 branch in Brno and later branch in Žilina. During the 1930s Melantrich got involved in movie production and in commercial graphics. In 1936 a music publishing "MelPa" (Melantrich + Pazdírek) was established. The spectrum of literature published by Melantrich was very wide and included works by many contemporary Czech writers, such as Božena Benešová, Jan Čep, Jaroslav Durych, Egon Hostovský, Josef Kopta, Vítězslav Nezval, Ivan Olbracht, and Vladislav Vančura. The circulation of some newspapers and journals reached hundreds of thousands, in few cases ("Večerní slovo", weekly "Svobodný zítřek") more than one million.

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