Levý's work was crucial for the development of translation theory in Czechoslovakia and it has subsequently influenced scholars internationally.

[1] Jiří Levý was born on 8 August 1926 in Košice (East Slovakia), and died on 17 January 1967 in Brno (South Moravia).

Levý studied English and Czech at Masaryk University in Brno (concluded in 1949).

From 1964 onwards, Levý worked at the Department of Czech Literature at Masaryk’s University in Brno.

His theses include: The Development of Translation Theories and Methods in the Czech Literature (1957) Fundamental Problems of the Theory of Translation (1958) Problems of Comparative Versification (1963) Levý also lectured on the theory of translation abroad (e.g. in Dubrovnik, Warsaw, Hamburg, Vienna, Stuttgart).

Levý organized two conferences on the theory of verse.

He founded the Group for Exact Methods and Interdisciplinary Relations.

He was a member of the Union of Czechoslovak Writers, worked for the Translation Department of the Union of Czech Writers, and he was a member of the International Federation of Translators.

Levý’s first published monograph, Czech Theories of Translation, includes his (PhD.)

thesis The Development of Translation Theories and Methods in the Czech Literature as well as a series of significant theorizing essays by Czech translators.

Thus, the monograph is concerned with translation norms from the 15th century until 1945.

In many of his essays, he deals with the problems of verse translation ("Isochronism of Facts and Isosyllabism as Factors of the Poetic Rhythm"; "Verse Rhythm as a Means of Dramatic Interpretation"; "The Verse of the Czech Folk Poetry and its Echoes"; "The Development of the Czech Theatre Blank-Verse," etc.).

Levý also wrote significant essays on T. S. Eliot, Walt Whitman, Ben Jonson and others.

The collection of his essays Will the Study of Literature Become an Exact Science?

Die Theorie des Verses – ihre matematische Aspekte.

In: To Honor Roman Jakobson: Essays on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday.

New York, American Elsevier Publishing Company.