Josef Knap (28 July 1900 – 13 December 1973) was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

and

literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

. Born in

Podůlší Podůlší is a municipality and village in Jičín District in the Hradec Králové Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 300 inhabitants. Notable people * Josef Knap (1900–1973), writer and poet *Josef Vinklář Josef Vinklář (10 N ...

near

Jičín Jičín (; german: Jitschin or ''Gitschin'') is a town in the Hradec Králové Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 16,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an Cultural monument (Czech Republi ...

, Knap studied at the Classical Grammar school until 1919. He graduated from the College of Philosophy at

Charles University ) , image_name = Carolinum_Logo.svg , image_size = 200px , established = , type = Public, Ancient , budget = 8.9 billion CZK , rector = Milena Králíčková , faculty = 4,057 , administrative_staff = 4,026 , students = 51,438 , undergr ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

in 1924, with a degree in modern literature. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he traveled throughout Europe visiting countries including Germany,

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, Norway, Italy and France. From 1925 he worked in the

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...

department of the National Museum of Czechoslovakia. He stayed there until 1951, eventually becoming the museum's administrator. His time there was interrupted by the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

occupation of Czechoslovakia, which he spent in Arbeitsansatz. Because of

theological Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

themes in his work, Knap became a victims of the political persecution of Catholic intellectuals by the

Communist government A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Comint ...

in the 1950s. In 1952, he was condemned without any evidence to eleven years in prison, but was released early in 1955 (he was pardoned in 1967 during a brief period of political freedom). After his release he worked as a building laborer, and later in the Memorial of National Literature. In the 1960s, he focused on the history of theater groups. Based on his work in this area, he published ''Umělcové na pouti'' (

''Traveling artists'') in 1961. Knap died in Prague and is buried in Železnice by Jičín. In 1997, his

memoirs A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...

were published under the name ''Bez poslední kapitoly'' (Czech ''Without the last chapter'').

Works

Knap's writings combine realistic and

impressionistic Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

elements. His inspiration came from northern European authors and some Czech writers, above all

Antal Stašek Antal Stašek (born Antonín Zeman) (22 July 1843 – 9 October 1931) was a Czech writer and lawyer. Life and work Stašek was born in the village of Stanový (now part of Zlatá Olešnice) in northern Bohemia. From 1877, Stašek was a successf ...

Karel Václav Rais Karel Václav Rais (January 4, 1859 – July 8, 1926) was a Czech realist novelist, author of the so-called ''country prose'', numerous books for youth and children, and several poems. Biography Rais was born into the family of a simple farm ...

and the impressionist

Fráňa Šrámek Fráňa Šrámek (January 19, 1877, Sobotka – July 1, 1952, Prague) was a Czech anarchist, impressionist, and vitalist poet, novelist, and playwright. In 1885 his family relocated to Písek, where he lived for a long time and much of his work ...

. He devoted his work to rural themes.

Short story collections

*''Píseň na samotě'' (1924) *''Zaváté šlépěje'' (1929–1940) *''Žloutnou stráně'' (1929) *''Polní kytice'', (1935) *''Trojlístek'' (1943) *''Čas kopřiv'' (1970)

Novels

*''Ztracené jaro'' (1922) *''Réva na zdi'' (1926) *''Muži a hory'' (1928) *''Vysoké jarní nebe'' (1932) *''Cizinec'' (1934) *''Puszta'' (1937) *''Dívčí hlas'' (1938) *''Věno'' (1944) *''Dokud vane vítr'' (1968) *''Vzdálená země'' (1969) *''Bez poslední kapitoly'' (1997) (memoirs)

Professional works about theater

*''Hilbert'' (1926) *''Zöllnerové: Dějiny divadelního rodu'' (1958) *''Umělcové na pouti: České divadelní společnosti v 19. století'' (1961) *''Čtyři herečky: Spurná, Vojtová, Brzková, Beníšková'' (1967)

Historical works

* ''Alej srdcí'' (1920) – debut book of

essay An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

s concerning Czech postwar poetry * ''Úvod do krásné literatury'' (1924) * ''Cesty a vůdcové: k literatuře let dvacátých'' (1926) * ''Básníci selství'' (1932) * ''Fráňa Šrámek'' (1937) * ''Literatura české půdy'' (1939) * ''

Selma Lagerlöf Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf (, , ; 20 November 1858 – 16 March 1940) was a Swedish author. She published her first novel, ''Gösta Berling's Saga'', at the age of 33. She was the first woman to win the 1909 Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Pr ...

ová'' (1949) – studies concerning this significant Swedish female author

Collections of poems