SVATOPLUK ČECH
(Born February 21, 1846, in Ostředek near Benešov. Died February 23, 1908.)
Svatopluk Čech was the son of a government official, and thus spent his youth in various parts of his native land, attending schools in Postupice, Liten, Vráný, Litoměřice and Prague, securing his degree in the Piaristic Gymnasium in 1865. Later, he studied law, though as a Gymnasium student he had already entered the field of literary effort, using the pseudonym “S. Rak.” Eventually he became editor successively of several of the leading Czech literary journals. His best works appeared in the “Květy” (Blossoms), a magazine which he and his brother, Vladimír, established in 1878.
Čech traveled extensively in Moravia, Poland, the Ukraine, around the Black Sea, Constantinople, in the Caucasus, Asia Minor, Denmark, France and England. Each of these journeys bore literary fruit.
While Čech is unquestionably the greatest epic poet of the Czechoslovaks and by some critics is ranked as the leading modern epic poet of Europe, some of his shorter prose writings are also notable as examples of enduring literature.
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