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Rudolf Těsnohlídek (7 June 1882 in
Rudolf Těsnohlídek (7 June 1882 in Čáslav
Čáslav (; german: Tschaslau) is a town in Kutná Hora District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 10,000 inhabitants. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone.
Administ ...
- 12 January 1928 in Brno
Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...
) 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, poet, journalist and translator. He also used the pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
Arnošt Bellis.
Life
He attended secondary school (gymnasium) inHradec Králové
Hradec Králové (; german: Königgrätz) is a city of the Czech Republic. It has about 91,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Hradec Králové Region. The historic centre of Hradec Králové is well preserved and is protected by law as an ...
and later started to study Czech, history and French at university in 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 ...
but didn't graduate.
Starting in 1908, he was a contributor to the Brno newspaper ''Lidové noviny
''Lidové noviny'' (''People's News'', or ''The People's Newspaper'', ) is a daily newspaper published in Prague, the Czech Republic. It is the oldest Czech daily still in print, and a newspaper of record.Stanislav Lolek, appeared in the ''Lidové noviny'' between 7 April and 23 June 1920, was published as a book in 1921, won a state prize and achieved lasting popularity. This optimistic tale, somewhere between a children's fairy tale and adult satire, was used as the basis for
Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tesnohlidek, Rudolf 1882 births 1928 suicides Czech poets Czech male poets Suicides by firearm in Czechoslovakia Suicides by firearm in the Czechoslovakia 20th-century Czech poets 20th-century male writers People from Čáslav Burials at Brno Central Cemetery 1928 deaths Charles University alumni Czechoslovak writers Austro-Hungarian writers
Leoš Janáček
Leoš Janáček (, baptised Leo Eugen Janáček; 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic musics, including Eastern European fol ...
's opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...
''The Cunning Little Vixen
''The Cunning Little Vixen'' (original title ''Příhody lišky Bystroušky'' or ''Tales of Vixen Sharp-Ears'' in English), is a three-act Czech-language opera by Leoš Janáček completed in 1923 to a libretto the composer himself adapted from a n ...
'' (''Příhody Lišky Bystroušky'', 1923).
Some of Těsnohlídek's other work reflects more pessimism and alienation than the lighthearted Vixen's tale.
His life, as interpreted by his journalistic colleague Bedřich Golombek, was a melodramatic tragedy imbued with pessimism, darkness, melancholy and decadence, a life plagued from childhood by feelings of sadness and social exclusion. In his teens, he watched helplessly as a friend drowned. When he was 21, he married Jindra Kopecká, a woman with tuberculosis. Two months after their wedding, on a holiday in Norway, she shot herself in the heart in front of him, possibly accidentally. Těsnohlídek was accused of murdering her, and had to endure two trials before being acquitted. In 1907 he moved to Brno, where he became a reporter of ''soudničky'' (cases from the local magistrate's court) for ''Lidové noviny''. After he had met Janáček and discussed plans for the opera based on ''Liška Bystrouška'', he married again, but this wife left him. He married a third time. He became interested in exploring the Moravian caves, wrote extensively about them, and submitted his drafts for publication but found they had been heavily edited without his knowledge. On 12 January 1928, he shot himself, as his first wife had done. His third wife gassed herself to death on hearing the news.
''Vixen Sharp Ears'' was first published in English in 1985, as ''The Cunning Little Vixen'', with pictures by Maurice Sendak
Maurice Bernard Sendak (; June 10, 1928 – May 8, 2012) was an American author and illustrator of children's books. He became most widely known for his book ''Where the Wild Things Are'', first published in 1963.Turan, Kenneth (October 16, 200 ...
.
Shortly before Christmas 1919, Těsnohlídek and some friends were walking in the woods outside the town of Bílovice nad Svitavou
Bílovice nad Svitavou is a municipality and village in Brno-Country District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as B ...
a few kilometres to the north of Brno when they discovered an abandoned girl, aged seventeen months, in danger of freezing. They rescued the child and took her to the police station at Bílovice. The child, subsequently named Liduška, was adopted by a family named Polákov from Brno, and lived until 1997, dying in Prague.
Adaptations
Ursula Dubosarsky
Ursula Dubosarsky (born ''Ursula Coleman''; 1961 in Sydney) is an Australian writer of fiction and non-fiction for children and young adults, whose work is characterised by a child's vision and comic voice of both clarity and ambiguity. She ha ...
's 2018 novel for children, ''Brindabella'', is based on ''Vixen Sharp Ears'' relocated in the Australian bush, with the role of the Vixen played by a kangaroo.
Work
''Nénie'' (1902) - poetry ''Dva mezi ostatními'' (Two Among Others) (1906) ''Květy v jíní'' (Flowers in Hoarfrost) (1908) ''Poseidon'' (1916) ''Liška Bystrouška'' (Vixen Sharp-ears,The Cunning Little Vixen
''The Cunning Little Vixen'' (original title ''Příhody lišky Bystroušky'' or ''Tales of Vixen Sharp-Ears'' in English), is a three-act Czech-language opera by Leoš Janáček completed in 1923 to a libretto the composer himself adapted from a n ...
) (1920)
''Kolonia Kutejsík'' (1922, awarded a state prize)
''Paví oko'' (Peacock's Eye) (1922)
''Čimčirínek a chlapci'' (Čimčirínek and the Boys) (1922, stories for children)
''Den'' (Day) (1923)
''Vrba zelená'' (Green Willow) (1925)
''Cvrček na cestách'' (Cricket on the move) (1927)
''Surovost z něžnosti a jiné soudničky'' (The Brutality of Tenderness and Other ''soudničky'') (a collection of his ''soudničky'', published in 1982)
References
External links
*Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tesnohlidek, Rudolf 1882 births 1928 suicides Czech poets Czech male poets Suicides by firearm in Czechoslovakia Suicides by firearm in the Czechoslovakia 20th-century Czech poets 20th-century male writers People from Čáslav Burials at Brno Central Cemetery 1928 deaths Charles University alumni Czechoslovak writers Austro-Hungarian writers