He studied at the Louny school together with his friend Konstantin Biebl, where he graduated in 1917.

After the First World War, he took part as a volunteer in the occupation of Slovakia by the Czechoslovak army.

He became a member of the Devětsil where he became a representative of the Poetist movement and from 1925, worked as an editor in the Communist daily newspaper Rudé právo, but left the editorial office in 1930.

[4] In December 1939, he married Milena Polanová, the daughter of the literary critic and poet Bohumil Polan.

In 1946 he joined Barrandov Studios, where he served on various advisory boards until 1957, when he retired.