Josef ŠkvoreckýCM (Czech pronunciation:[ˈjozɛfˈʃkvorɛtskiː]ⓘ; September 27, 1924 – January 3, 2012) was a Czech-Canadian writer and publisher. He spent half of his life in Canada, publishing and supporting banned Czech literature during thecommunist era. Škvorecký was awarded theNeustadt International Prize for Literature in 1980. He and his wife were long-time supporters of Czech dissident writers before the fall of communism in that country. Škvorecký's fiction deals with several themes: the horrors oftotalitarianism and repression, theexpatriate experience, and the miracle ofjazz.[1]
Born the son of a bank clerk[2] inNáchod,Czechoslovakia, Škvorecký graduated in 1943 from the Reálnégymnasium in his native Náchod. He had a youthful love-affair withjazz and was an amateur tenorsaxophone player in the period just prior to theSecond World War, an experience he drew upon for his novellaThe Bass Saxophone (1967).[3] For two years during the War he was aslave labourer in aMesserschmitt aircraft factory in Náchod.
After the war, he began to study at the Faculty of Medicine ofCharles University in Prague, but after his first term he moved to the Faculty of Arts, where he studied philosophy and graduated in 1949.[4] In 1951 he gained a PhD inphilosophy. He then taught for two years at the Social School for Girls inHořice.[2] Between 1952 and 1954 he performed his military service in theCzechoslovak Army.
He worked briefly as a teacher, editor and translator in the 1950s. In this period he completed several novels including his first novelThe Cowards (written 1948–49, published 1958[5]) andThe End of the Nylon Age (1956).[6] They were condemned and banned by theCommunist authorities after their publication. Hisprose style, open-ended andimprovisational, was an innovation, but this and his democratic ideals were a challenge to the Communist regime. As a result, he lost his job as editor of the magazineSvětová literatura ("World Literature").[2] Škvorecký kept writing, and helped nurture the democratic movement that culminated in thePrague Spring in 1968.
He taught at the Department of English at theUniversity of Toronto where he was eventually appointed ProfessorEmeritus of English and Film. He retired in 1990. In Canada, he is considered to be a Canadian author despite the fact that he is mostly published in Czech.
Most of Škvorecký's novels are available in English: the novelsThe Cowards,Miss Silver's Past,The Republic of Whores,The Miracle Game,The Swell Season,The Engineer of Human Souls which won a CanadianGovernor General's Award,The Bride of Texas,Dvořák in Love,The Tenor Saxophonist's Story,Two Murders in My Double Life,An Inexplicable Story or The Narrative of Questus Firmus Siculus, his selected short storiesWhen Eve Was Naked and the two short novelsThe Bass Saxophone andEmöke. A recurring character in several of his novels is Danny Smiricky, who is a partial self-portrait of the author.
He wrote four books of detective stories featuring Lieutenant Boruvka of the Prague Homicide Bureau:The Mournful Demeanor of Lieutenant Boruvka,Sins forFather Knox,The End of Lieutenant Boruvka andThe Return of Lieutenant Boruvka.
His poetry was published as a collection in 1999 as...there's no remedy for this pain (...na tuhle bolest nejsou prášky).
His non-fiction works includeTalkin' Moscow Blues, a book of essays onjazz, literature and politics, an autobiographyHeaded for the Blues, and two books on the Czech cinema includingAll the Bright Young Men and Women.
Škvorecký wrote for films and television. The feature filmThe Tank Battalion was adapted from his novelThe Republic of Whores. Other features, written for Prague TV, includeEine kleine Jazzmusik, adapted from his story of the same name,The Emöke Legend from a novella of the same name, and a two-hour TV dramaPoe and the Murder of a Beautiful Girl, based onEdgar Allan Poe's storyThe Mystery of Marie Roget. Three very successful TV serials were made from his stories:Sins for Father Knox,The Swell Season andMurders for Luck.
A film version of the novelPastor's End was produced in 1968, but was never shown and went straight into locked Communist archives due to the fact that its author "illegally" fled the country. In the spring and summer of 1968 Škvorecký and the Czech film directorMiloš Forman jointly wrote a script synopsis to make a film version ofThe Cowards. After Škvorecký fled the Warsaw Pact invasion the synopsis was translated into English, but no film was made. In the 21st century the English translation was translated back into Czech and has been published.[9]
Prominent in his writing for radio was a long-running monthly series on literature forVoice of America. From 1973 to 1990 he wrote more than 200 of these shows covering notable literary works and discussing literary themes.
He died on January 3, 2012, inToronto, Ontario, from cancer; he was 87 years old.[10]
Konec poručíka Borůvky (The End of Lieutenant Boruvka), 1975
Příběh inženýra lidských duší (The Engineer of Human Souls), 1977
Návrat poručíka Borůvky (The Return of Lieutenant Boruvka), 1980
Scherzo capriccioso (translated into English asDvorak in Love), 1984 - story about Antonín Dvořák's time in America as director of theNational Conservatory for Music.[12]
Nevěsta z Texasu (The Bride from Texas), 1992
Dvě vraždy v mém dvojím životě (Two Murders in My Double Life), 1999
Nevysvětlitelný příběh aneb Vyprávění Questa Firma Sicula (An Inexplicable Story, or, The Narrative of Questus Firmus Siculus), 1998
Krátké setkání, s vraždou (Brief Encounter, with Murder), 1999, co-written withZdena Salivarová
Setkání po letech, s vraždou (Encounter After Many Years, with Murder), 2001, co-written with Zdena Salivarová
Setkání na konci éry, s vraždou (Encounter at the End of an Era, with Murder), 2001, co-written with Zdena Salivarová
Obyčejné źivoty (Ordinary Lives), 2004
Novellas
Legenda Emöke (The Legend of Emöke), 1963
Bassaxofon (The Bass Saxophone), 1967
Collections of short stories
Sedmiramenný svícen (The Menorah), 1964
Ze života lepší společnosti (The Life of High Society), 1965
Smutek poručíka Borůvky (The Mournful Demeanour of Lieutenant Boruvka), 1966
Babylónský příběh a jiné povídky ('A Babylonian Story and Other Stories), 1967
Hořkej svět (The Bitter World), 1969
Hříchy pro pátera Knoxe (Sins for Father Knox), 1973
Ze života české společnosti (The Life of Czech Society), 1985
Povídky tenorsaxofonisty (The Tenor Saxophonist's Story), 1993
Povídky z Rajského údolí (The Edenvale Stories), 1996
