Josef Richard Vilímek (1 April 1835 in

Vamberk Vamberk (; ) is a town in Rychnov nad Kněžnou District in the Hradec Králové Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 4,600 inhabitants. Administrative division Vamberk consists of three municipal parts (in brackets population according to ...

– 16 April 1911 in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

) 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 *Czech (surnam ...

publisher. He established a well known publishing house and was father of publisher Josef Richard Vilímek (1860 - 1938). Vilímek had studied at German technical university in Prague. Since young age he had shown literal talent and published poetry, fairy tales and articles in journals, under pseudonym ''Jan Velešovský''. After studies he worked as a journalist for several newspapers in Prague. In 1856 he was expelled from Prague for political reasons. In 1858 Vilímek and Josef Svátek founded political satire journal "Humoristické listy". In 1858 he and Josef Novák founded "Slavic Bookstore" (''Slovanské knihkupectví'') but left it in 1867. Publishing of calendars, almanacs and plays of

Matěj Kopecký Matěj Kopecký (24 February 1775, probably in Libčany – 3 July 1847 in Koloděje nad Lužnicí) was a Czech puppeteer. For six generations his descendants followed the art of puppeteering. Kopecký's father was a poor travelling puppeteer ...

turned to be the most successful business. In 1868 Vilímek was elected into

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

n parliament (''český sněm''). In 1872 Vilímek set up his own printing shop. In 1884 he founded modern publishing house ''Josef Richard Vilímek'', also known as ''Josef R. Vilímek'', ''JR Vilímek'' or just ''Vilímek''. Together with publishing houses of

Jan Otto Jan Otto (8 November 1841, Přibyslav – 29 May 1916, Prague) was a Czechs, Czech publisher and bookseller. He is best known for ''Otto's encyclopedia'', the largest encyclopedia published in Czech language, Czech. Life and work He was the son ...

and František Topič ''Vilímek'' became one of the most famous publishers of the turn of 19/20th century. In summer of 1885 Vilímek moved responsibility of the company to his son but stayed as editor and manager of " Humoristické listy" until 1906. In 1908 he published memoirs "Ze zašlých dob".

References

* Aleš Zach: ''Stopami pražských nakladatelských domů'', Prague, Thyrsus 1996,

External links

All texts are in

.
Biography of father and son

More detailed biography
(PDF, pages 6–7)
History of the publishing house
(scroll to "Nakladatelství Josef Richard Vilímek" section)
Death register entry
of J. R. Vilímek {{DEFAULTSORT:Vilimek, Josef Richard 1835 births 1911 deaths People from Vamberk Czech publishers (people) Publishers (people) from Austria-Hungary Czech Technical University in Prague alumni