Eduard Petiška

From early childhood he spoke two languages – Czech and German – and this later enabled him to work as a translator during the years in which he was prohibited from publishing.

He started publishing prose and poetry, wrote articles for newspapers and children's magazines, was active in Umělecká beseda (an artists' union), and worked in film and radio.

These included writers Jaroslav Seifert, František Hrubín, Bohumil Hrabal and Emanuel Frynta; and artists Jiří Kolář, Kamil Lhoták, Zdeněk Miler, Karel Teissig, Vladimír Komárek, Zdeněk Sklenář, Vilém Plocek who illustrated his books, Cyril Bouda and Helena Zmatlíková.

An unofficial club originated in his apartment in Brandýs during the 1950s – it served as a meeting place for his friends where they could read their writings and discuss innovations in the world of arts.

Later he also published poetry (including Moments, To Empty Places, Ovidio's Family, and Autumn Diary), novels (Before the Men Mature, Judge Knorr, A Young Man's Guide to Marriage, and The Heart in which I live), and Germanic studies (Readings of J.W.

It was not unusual for him to write a third inscription in one book – the first having been written many years earlier for the grandmother, the second for her daughter, and the third for her granddaughter, who still loved the same stories.

He conceived it as a "novel about life in Bohemia" – about Czech hopes and despairs, the gods representing particular political ideologies or attitudes.

This message is understandable in all the many languages it has been translated into (including German, English, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Hungarian, Estonian and Slovenian).

This theme, which other writers overlooked because they perceived it as too elaborate and trivial, became the basis of his career; he became a favorite storyteller for both children and adults, narrating about pressure and happiness, fidelity and betrayal, and about the brevity and potential of life.

A plaque with his portrait created by Reon Argondian has been placed on the house at 5, Karlovarská Street, where he stayed in Mariánské Lázně.

The ninety literary works which he left behind remain alive; they are published repeatedly and have been translated into many languages including Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Vietnamese and Esperanto.