Václav Hrabě (June 13, 1940,

Příbram Příbram (; german: Freiberg in Böhmen, ''Przibram'', or ''Pribram'', in 1939–1945 ''Pibrans'') is a town in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 32,000 inhabitants. It is well known for its mining history, and more ...

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

– March 5, 1965,

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 ...

, Czechoslovakia) was a Czech poet and writer, and the most important member of the

Beat Generation The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by Silent Generatio ...

in former

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

Life

Hrabě was born in

to Jan Hrabě and Magdalena Kalinová. He grew up in

Lochovice Lochovice is a municipality and village in Beroun District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 1,400 inhabitants. Administrative parts Villages of Kočvary, Netolice and Obora are administrative parts of Lochovice. ...

and attended high school in

Hořovice Hořovice (; german: Horschowitz, Horvitz, Horowitz) is a town in Beroun District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 6,900 inhabitants. Administrative parts Hořovice is made up of only one administrative part. His ...

. After graduating in 1957, Hrabě moved to

and studied

Czech language Czech (; Czech ), historically also Bohemian (; ''lingua Bohemica'' in Latin), is a West Slavic language of the Czech–Slovak group, written in Latin script. Spoken by over 10 million people, it serves as the official language of the Czech Re ...

and

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

at the Faculty of Pedagogy. During his time as a student, he started writing poetry. In 1961, Hrabě graduated from university and was

conscripted Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...

into the army. Upon his discharge he took a variety of jobs as a laborer, librarian, writer for the literary magazine ''Tváře'' ('Faces'), until finally working as a teacher from 1964. Hrabě was influenced by poets such as

František Gellner František Gellner (19 June 1881 – disappeared September 1914) was a Czech poet, short story writer, artist and anarchist. Biography František Gellner was born to a poor Jewish family in Mladá Boleslav (''Jungbunzlau''), Bohemia. His father ...

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...

Vladimir Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (, ; rus, Влади́мир Влади́мирович Маяко́вский, , vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ məjɪˈkofskʲɪj, Ru-Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky.ogg, links=y; – 14 Apr ...

and

François Villon François Villon (Modern French: , ; – after 1463) is the best known French poet of the Late Middle Ages. He was involved in criminal behavior and had multiple encounters with law enforcement authorities. Villon wrote about some of these ex ...

. Like other Beat Generation writers, he was also influenced by

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

and

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

music; he taught himself to play

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

and

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

, and played with several jazz bands during his time as a student. Except poetry and prose, Hrabě also wrote a play which is unfortunately lost. In 1965, Hrabě met and interviewed Allen Ginsberg during his visit to Prague. Hrabě died of accidental

carbon monoxide poisoning Carbon monoxide poisoning typically occurs from breathing in carbon monoxide (CO) at excessive levels. Symptoms are often described as "flu-like" and commonly include headache, dizziness, weakness, vomiting, chest pain, and confusion. Large e ...

while asleep in his apartment in the

Malá Strana Malá Strana (Czech for "Little Side (of the River)", ) or more formally Menší Město pražské () is a district of the city of Prague, Czech Republic, and one of its most historic neighbourhoods. In the Middle Ages, it was a dominant center o ...

district of

at the age of twenty-four. His untimely death robbed

Czech literature Czech literature can refer to literature written in Czech, in the Czech Republic (formerly Czechoslovakia, earlier the Lands of the Bohemian Crown), or by Czech people. Most literature in the Czech Republic is now written in Czech, but histor ...

of one of the most important poets of his generation. He was briefly married (1962–64) and had a son named Jan Miškovský. Hrabě is buried in Lochovice. A high school in Hořovice is named ''Gymnázium Václava Hraběte'' after him.

Works

Hrabě debuted in 1962 in the magazine ''Univerzita Karlova'' ('Charles University'), and some of his poems were also published in army magazines ''Zápisník'' ('Notebook'), ''Československý voják'' ('Czechoslovak Soldier') and ''Obrana lidu'' ('Defense of the People'). As a collection, his poems were published only after his death, however. It was primarily thanks to Miroslav Kovářík that Hrabě's poetry became widely known to his peers. Kovařík began promoting Hrabě as early as in 1965. Between 1965 and 1967, he dedicated literary evenings to Hrabě at the '' Docela malé divadlo'' ('Just a Small Theater') in

Litvínov Litvínov (; german: Leutensdorf) is a town in Most District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 22,000 inhabitants. It is known as an industrial centre. Administrative parts Litvínov is made up of 12 town parts an ...

; later he edited and helped publish Hrabě's poetry in several editions. Some of Hrabě's poems were also set to music in the 1980s by

Vladimír Mišík Vladimír Mišík (born 8 March 1947) is a Czech musician and politician. He is the founder or co-founder of the bands The Matadors, Matadors, Blue Effect, and Etc (band), Etc.... Career Music Mišík founded his first band, Uragán, as a teena ...

Poetry

*''Stop-time'' (1969) *''Blues v modré a bílé'' (1977) *''Korunovační blues'' (1981) *''Černé nebe nad městem'' (1985) *''Blues pro bláznivou holku'' (1990) *''Blues'' (1995, 1999)

Other works

*''Horečka'' (short story) (1967, 1994) *''Margot'' (theatre play, lost)

References

* Štěpán Kučera: Zpěvák blues. ''Divoké víno'' 15 (2005)

External links

Essay on Hrabě in Divoké vino
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hrabe, Vaclav 20th-century Czech poets 20th-century male writers Czech male poets Beat Generation writers 1940 births 1965 deaths People from Příbram People from Beroun District