Jakub Deml

Jakub Deml (August 20 1878 - February 10 1961) was a Czech Catholic priest and writer.

Life

Deml was born in Tasov near Třebíč, then Austria-Hungary, now Czech Republic. In 1902 he was ordained Roman Catholic priest, but in 1907-1908 and after 1909 he was pensioned, partly due to conflicts with his superiors. He became one of the most important Czech authors of 1920s and 1930s. Publishing of his books was prohibited after the communist coup in 1948. Deml died in Třebíč.

Main works

*Notantur lumina, 1907, 1917 [First Lights]
*Hrad smrti [Castle of Death] , 1912
*Moji přátelé [My friends] , 1913
*Tanec smrti [Dance of Death] , 1914
*Miriam, 1916
*Šlépěje, so-called 'One-Man-Review', Deml's own periodical with essays, poems, diary notes, letters, pamphlets, tractates etc., published between 1917 and 1941 in 26 volumes.
*Zapomenuté světlo [Forgotten Light] , published 1934 and confiscated by censors for 'obscenous moments' - Roman Jakobson considered it the greatest prose work of 1930s. It has not been translated to English yet. It was made into a film by Vladimír Michálek in 1996.
*Matylka, 1937
*Podzimní sen [Autumn Dream] , written 1951, published in London 1984, first home edition Prague 1992

Literature

* Alexander Wöll: "Jakub Deml. Leben und Werk (1878-1961). Eine Studie zur mitteleuropäischen Literatur". Köln/Weimar/Wien: Böhlau, 2006 (in German with Czech quotations) ISBN-10 3-412-30005-5 and ISBN 978-3-412-30005-0

External links

* [http://www.tasov-tr.cz/vismo/dokumenty2.asp?id_org=16510&id=5835&p1=3001 Jakub Deml and Tasov (in Czech)]
* [http://www.deml.cz Website dedicated to Jakub Deml (in Czech)]
* [http://bohemica.free.fr/auteurs/deml/presentation_deml.htm French page about Jakub Deml]