Paul Robert Wilson (born 3 July 1941 in

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately southwest of T ...

) is a Canadian translator and writer. In 1967 he moved to Czechoslovakia where he performed as a singer with

The Plastic People of the Universe The Plastic People of the Universe (PPU) is a Czech rock band from Prague. They are considered the foremost representatives of Prague's underground culture (1968–1989), which defied the Czechoslovakia's Communist regime. Members of the band ...

. Because he was a member of this group, he was expelled from Czechoslovakia in 1977. This band was banned in Czechoslovakia and their recordings could not be officially released. Wilson later founded a record label Boží Mlýn and released some of their recordings in Canada. Paul Wilson later went on to become one of the major translators into English of

Václav Havel Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and former dissident. Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992 and then as ...

's work. In 2006 he was working on a new translation of ''

The Memorandum ''The Memorandum'' is the common name in English for the 1965 play ''Vyrozumění'', by Czech playwright Václav Havel. The first English translation, by Vera Blackwell in 1967, used this title. In 2006, Canadian translator Paul Wilson publish ...

'' for the

Havel Festival The Havel () is a river in northeastern Germany, flowing through the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt. It is a right tributary of the Elbe and long. However, the direct distance from its source to its mo ...

, which also features two of his other translations. He also translated many books, such as '' I Served the King of England'' by

Bohumil Hrabal Bohumil Hrabal (; 28 March 1914 – 3 February 1997) was a Czech writer, often named among the best Czech writers of the 20th century. Early life Hrabal was born in Židenice (suburb of Brno) on 28 March 1914, in what was then the province ...

, from Czech to English, and more recently ''Mr. Kafka and Other Tales from the Time of the Cult'' (2015).

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Paul 1941 births Living people Canadian male singers Canadian translators Musicians from Hamilton, Ontario Czech–English translators Writers from Hamilton, Ontario