Poet and writer, Jiří Havel was born on July 27, 1924, in Pěnčín u Jablonce nad Nisou. His family had to leave the countryside around the Bohemian Paradise region in 1939, and Havel was later taken to Germany for forced labor. After the war he was variously employed and from 1953 he worked for the newly established youth magazine Pionýr [Pioneer]. Under his editorship, the magazine gradually loosened its connection to the Young Pioneer organization and began to address the interests of their young readers in general (in 1968 it was renamed Větrník [Windmill]). Havel was removed from his position in 1971 and stricken from the rolls of the Writers’ Union. He was rehabilitated after 1989.
Havel’s literary work was intended for children from the outset, and today he collaborates with the children’s magazines Sluníčko [The Sun] and Mateřídouška [Thyme] and participates in devising the reading program in primary schools. He has authored a number of illustrated concertina books for children and his humorous tone has reinvigorated the originally didactic purpose of illustrated reading matter. His poetry for school-aged children is based on poetic nonsense, and he has penned lyrical verse as well. His collections from the 1960s, Co nosí kosi (1963) and Ani stránka pro bručánka (1966), are notable for their conventional language play (Alík v Krči / jen se krčí, / vrčí / ze mu v Krči crčí / voda na čenich), which Havel refined and extended with word games and tongue twisters in the collection Člověče, nemrač se! [Keep Smiling!, 1972]. The emblematically titled collection Království nesmyslů [The Kingdom of Nonsense, 2000] presents a comprehensive cross section of Havel’s nonsense poetry, highlighted by ludic nursery-rhymes for younger readers and cheery epic poems with punch lines for older readers. Havel’s triptych of poetry from the 1970s and ’80s – Veselé noty [Happy Tunes, 1978], Malovaný svět [The Painted World, 1984], Než zazvoní potřetí [Before the Third Ring, 1988, illustrated by Karel Franta] – is thematically connected and introduces children to the worlds of music, fine arts and theater. The first two collections are characterized by free aural and visual associations: “Along the roof’s piano keys / patter small paws / and excited stickheads / drum the windows”). The final collection is indeed a guide through the world of theater (“In the Props Room,” “The Lighting Technician,” “At the Opera,” “Hand Puppets”) and concludes with short dramatic scenes in verse. The rhetorical questions in poem titles such as “Who’ll Tame Them?,” “What Is Both Heavy and Light?,” and “Who Makes the Storm on Stage?” are riddles whose solutions are straightforward with only a slight hint of metaphor. Havel presents the stage as a world full of miracles. There are flashes, however, of unexpected nostalia: a makeup box as witness to long past emotions; the actor split between his role’s emotions and his own real feelings. The slim volume Kdo vodí koně po pěší zóně [Who’s Leading the Horse Down the Pedestrian Zone, 1994] can be placed among Havel’s lyrical work. The thirteen poems devoted to Prague and its cultural landmarks over the course of the changing seasons is incorporated into full-page illustrations by Denisa Wagnerová. Havel’s contribution to Czech comic strips should not go unmentioned. Between 1976 and 1990 he collaborated with artist Věra Faltová to produce the adventures of the dog hero Barbánek, which regularly appeared in the children’s magazine Ohníček [Little Fire]. Though Havel’s mischievous Brabánek clearly had a didactic intent, it was done with a healthy does of humor and the popularity of the character was confirmed when published in book form.
(mš)
