- Jiří Mucha
Jiří Mucha (born on
March 12 ,1915 in Prague –April 5 ,1991 in Prague) was a Czech writer, author of autobiographical novels and studies of the works of his father, theArt Nouveau painterAlfons Mucha .Life
Born in
Prague , he was inParis whenGermany occupiedCzechoslovakia in September 1938. He returned to Prague upon the death of his father, but was able to obtain permission to return to Paris as a war correspondent, eventually making his way to theUnited Kingdom , joining the RAF and working for the Czech government-in-exile. He returned to Prague in 1947, but was arrested the following year by the country's newCommunist government because he had served in the British military. Released from prison in 1953, he devoted himself to his writing and to publicizing his father's art, spending most of his life overseas. Living in Paris at the time of theVelvet Revolution , which brought down the communist regime, he returned to Prague, where he died two years later, in 1991. After the fall of communist régime in Czechoslovakia he worked as chairman of the CzechPEN club .He was married two times, his first wife was Czech composer
Vítězslava Kaprálová , after her death he married G. Thomsen, Scottish composer.Work
Apart from his biographical works about his father, Mucha's works have received little attention in English. They include (in Czech):
* "Spálená setba"
* "Studené slunce"
* "Podivné lásky"One book by Mucha, "Living and Partly Living. The Personal Journal of a Czech Writer in a Stalinist Prison", was published in English in 1967. As a political prisoner Mucha worked in a coal mine under terrifying conditions. Other miners, who were not prisoners brought him writing materials from outside, which he stashed in secret places in the mine. During alerts when the mine threatened to cave in, Mucha jotted his reflections on what it was like to be only partly living.
External links
* [http://www.spisovatele.cz/jiri-mucha Czech link]
* [http://www.radio.cz/en/article/11867 English link]References
Ormiston, Rosalind: "Alphonse Mucha. Masterworks." Flame Tree Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-1-84451-730-5
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