Vaclav Havel (1936—2011)

“Truth and love must prevail over lies and hate.”
Vaclav Havel

Yesterday I wrote the post The Active Protagonist and that could have been the nickname for Vaclav Havel.

I don’t know how many playwrights have become presidents of countries, but Valcav Havel is on that short list. He wrote over 20 plays and was also the President of the Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003.

He was born in Prauge where his father owned Barrandov Film Studios, which is now one of the largest film studios in Europe.  (The studio was opened in the 30s but has been used in more recent decades for filming Mission Impossible, The Bourne Identity, and The Chronicles of Narnia.)

But coming from a family with a bourgeois background was not a plus in communist Czechoslovakia and his education was limited. After spending a couple of years in the military service he began working as a stagehand and eventually writing plays. (He actually studied playwriting through a correspondence program.)

In the 1960s his plays began to be performed (The Garden Party, The Memorandum) and gain international recognition—but after 1968 his plays were banned in Czechoslovakia, nor did he have the freedom to travel and see his plays performed in other countries.

He became more politically involved and eventually was arrested for his involvement in the Czech underground movement.  His longest single stay in prison was five years (1979-1984), but his total time in either incarceration or virtual house arrest spanned 20 years.

His essays (The Power of the Powerless—follow link to 10/1978) helped make him a popular voice and he became a key figure in the Velvet Underground that helped end communism in Czechoslovakia.  In 1989, he become the last President of Czechoslovakia, and then in 1993 he became the first President of the newly formed Czech Republic.

After his Presidency ended he returned to writing plays and non-fiction work such as his memoir To the Castle and Back. Many of his plays became TV movies over the decades, but his first feeature film (Odchazeni/Leaving)—which he also directed— was just produced this year as he turned 75 years old. And he wrote an adaptation of The Ghost of Munich which Milos Foreman is set to direct next year.

He died yesterday (December 18, 2011) in Prauge.

“In everyone there is some longing for humanity’s rightful dignity, for moral integrity, for freedom of expression of being and a sense of transendence over the world of existence. Yet, and the same time…In everyone there is some willingness to merge with the annonymous crowd and to flow comfortably along with it down the river of pseudolife.”
Vaclav Havel (October 1978)

Vaclav Havel—The Active Protagonist. (Unless you’re a communist, then he was The Active Antagonist.)

P.S. To learn more about Vaclav check out the site Havel at Columbia surrounding his 2006 visit to Columbia University in New York.

Scott W. Smith