Bohumil Hrabal, one of the most important Czech writers of the 20th century, was born the illegitimate son of Marie Kiliánová. He was later adopted by her future husband, Frantisek Hrabal, a brewery manager from Nymburk. Though born in Brno, he spent his childhood in Polná and Nymburk, where he attended the local secondary school, graduating in 1935. He then studied law at Charles University in Prague until, following the German occupation, the authorities closed down all Czech universities. For the next few years he had a variety of jobs – including clerk, railway laborer and train conductor. After the war he completed his university studies, though he never took up law as a profession.
From 1947- 1949 he was a traveling salesman; then he worked in a steel mill in Kladno, where in 1952 he suffered a serious injury. In 1954 he took a job as paper-packer in a waste-processing plant; in 1956 he got married and in 1959 started work as a stage hand at the S. K. Neumann Theatre (now Palmovka Theatre, Prague). From 1963 till his death in 1997 he devoted himself to writing. The type-composition of his first book, ‘Lost Alley’ was destroyed after the communist take-over in 1948. His first published work, therefore, was ‘People Talking’ (1956), which appeared as a supplement to the Bulletin of the Czech Bibliophile Association in an edition of 250 copies.Three years later he was thwarted for a second time when the communists again visited the printers and smashed up the composition of his first proper publication ‘Larks on a String”. So the first book he actually published, the collection of short stories ‘Pearls on the Bottom’ did not see the light of day until 1963 when he was 49. Its enormous popularity soon led to the publication of a second volume, ‘The Palaverers’ (1964).
There followed a series of novellas: ‘Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age’ (1964), ‘Closely Watched Trains’ (1965) and ‘Advertising the Sale of the House I no Longer Wish to Live in’ (1965). After the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact forces in 1968, Hrabal was again forbidden to publish. Two books, ‘Home-works’ and ‘Buds’ were ‘withdrawn’ just before going to print. But Hrabal was not deterred, and went on to produce his masterpieces ‘I Served the King of England’ 1974), ‘Cutting it Short’ (1976), ‘Snowdrops Festival’ (1979), ‘Sweet Melancholy’ (1979), ‘Too Loud a Solitude’ (1980) and ‘The Harlequin Millions’ (1981). These were followed in the late 1980s by the autobiographical trilogy ‘Wedding in the House’ , ‘Vita nuova’ and ‘Vacant Lots’.
Hrabal’s influence is enormous, not only on 20th century Czech literature but also on Czech cinema. The film adaptation of his Pearls on the Bottom, stories about the ‘remarkableness of everyday life’ is regarded as a seminal work of the Czech New Wave. Besides the war time comedy “Closely Watched Trains” and ‘Larks on a String’, other memorable films inspired by Hrabal’s writings are “Cutting it Short” (dir. Jirí Menzel, 1980), “Snowdrops Festival “(dir. Jirí Menzel, 1983) and “The Gentle Barbarian” (dir. Petr Koliha, 1989). Almost all Hrabal’s books have been filmed, including “Too Loud a Solitude” (1994) directed by the Czechborn Vera Caisová (who lives in France) and starring Philippe Noiret.
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