Josef Škvorecký

Josef Škvorecký, a world-renowned writer, translator and publisher, was born on September 27, 1924, in Náchod.

After receiving his degree from the Philosophical Faculty of the Charles University in Prague, Škvorecký worked in the national publishing house for music, literature and art, where he was an editor of the Světová literatura magazine.

In 1958, he published his first book, Zbabělci. It was this novel that started a hostile campaign against Škvorecký and other writers, who were considered a threat to the communist regime and later forbidden to publish. At that time Škvorecký left his job and started working in the Odeon publishing house.

In the 1950s and 60s he was one of the most admired experts on Anglo-American literature, writing forewords and epilogues to many books, as well as medallions and essays for various Czech newspapers and magazines.

After the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, Škvorecký left for USA. He never returned and settled in exile in Toronto, Canada, where he became a Professor at the University lecturing on Czech theatre and cinema, Anglo-American literature and creative writing.

In 1971, Josef Škvorecký, together with his wife Zdena Salivarová, founded the publishing house Sixty-Eight Publishers, where they published many Czech and Slovak exile and samizdat books.

Josef Škvorecký is a brilliant writer and an important figure in Czech literary history, without whose help many books written during the communist era would never have been read.

Czech writer and publisher Josef Skvorecky dies in Toronto at age 87.