Ondřej Sekora (25 September 1899 – 4 July 1967) 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 ...

painter, illustrator, writer, journalist and

entomologist Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

. He is known mainly as an author of children books. Sekora was also one of the first propagators of

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

Biography

In 1919, Sekora graduated from the gymnasium in

Vyškov Vyškov (; ) is a town in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 21,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an urban monument zone. Administrative division Vyškov consists of 13 mun ...

. He then studied at the ''Faculty of Law'' of

Masaryk University Masaryk University (MU) (; ) is the second largest university in the Czech Republic, a member of the Compostela Group and the Utrecht Network. Founded in 1919 in Brno, it now consists of ten faculties and 35,115 students. It is named after To ...

. From 1921, he worked as a sports editor, illustrator, reporter and commentator for ''

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. It is a national news daily covering po ...

'' newspaper in Brno. In 1923, he married Markéta Kalabusová, but was divorced a year later. From 1929 to 1931, he studied privately as a pupil of Professor Arnošt Hofbauer. In 1927, the editorial office of ''Lidové noviny'' moved to Prague. Sekora married his second wife, Ludmila Roubíčková, in 1931. A year later they had a son, who was also named Ondřej. In 1941, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he was forced to leave his job and expelled from the ''Federation of Czech Journalists''. The reason was his mixed marriage. His second wife, Ludmila, was of

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

origin, and the whole family was persecuted by

Germans Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...

as racially mixed. From October 1944 to April 1945, he was imprisoned in the German

labor camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see British and American spelling differences, spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are unfree labour, forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have ...

s in Kleinstein (

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

) and Osterode (Germany). His wife was deported to the

Theresienstadt concentration camp Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstadt served as a waystation to the extermination c ...

. In Osterode, Sekora met and befriended Czech actor

Oldřich Nový Oldřich Nový (7 August 1899, in Prague – 15 March 1983, in Prague) was a Czech film and theatre actor, director, composer, dramaturg and singer. He is considered one of the greatest actors of the Czech cinema in the first half of the 20th cen ...

, with whom he attempted to organize the

puppet theatre Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance that involves the manipulation of puppets – inanimate objects, often resembling some type of human or animal figure, that are animated or manipulated by a human called a puppeteer. Such a performan ...

in the camp. Both Sekora and his wife survived the imprisonment, and he later described his experience in his diary. Following World War II he worked as an editor in the magazines ''Práce'' and ''Dikobraz''. From 1949, he also led one of the sections of the ''Státní nakladatelství dětské knihy'' (SNDK) (''State Publishing House of Children Books''). In his later years Sekora devoted himself solely to painting, writing and illustration. In 1964, he was awarded the ''

Meritorious Artist Merited Artist, Honored Artist, etc., is an honorary title in the Soviet Union, Russian Federation, Union Republics, and autonomous republics, also in some other Eastern Bloc states, as well as in a number of post-Soviet states. In Russian language ...

'' title, and in 1966 he received the ''

Marie Majerová Marie Majerová (1 February 1882 – 16 January 1967) was a Czech writer and translator. Biography The daughter of working-class parents, she was born in Úvaly and grew up in Kladno. When she was sixteen, she began working as a servant in Budape ...

Prize''. His public activities ceased in 1964, after a heart attack. He died on 4 July 1967, and is buried in Prague-

Košíře Košíře is a district of Prague, part of the municipal area Prague 5. It is situated in the valley of the Motol brook between the districts Smíchov and Motol. Košíře became a town in 1896 and was joined onto Prague in 1921. History Koš ...

. He was a member of the

Communist Party of Czechoslovakia The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia ( Czech and Slovak: ''Komunistická strana Československa'', KSČ) was a communist and Marxist–Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992. It was a member of the Com ...

. In the post-war years he actively participated in the Czechoslovak communist agitation and propaganda. Sekora trained the first Czech rugby clubs, ''Moravská Slávie'' in Brno-Pisárky and ''AFK Žižka'' Brno among others. He also created the Czech rugby terminology. He co-founded and edited the magazine ''Sport''. The

Main-belt asteroid The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, centered on the Sun and roughly spanning the space between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids ...

13406 Sekora, discovered in 1999, is named after him.

Rugby

Rugby union was introduced to

(as it was then) by Ondřej Sekora, when he returned from living in France in 1926, with a rugby ball and set of rules.Bath, Richard (ed.) ''The Complete Book of Rugby'' (Seven Oaks Ltd, 1997 ) p. 66

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

, the

Moravia Moravia ( ; ) is a historical region in the eastern Czech Republic, roughly encompassing its territory within the Danube River's drainage basin. It is one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The medieval and early ...

n capital is considered the cradle of rugby in

, and is where the first match took place, between SK ''Moravská Slávie'', based in Brno-Pisárky, and ''AFK Žižka'', based in Brno. Both of these teams were trained by Sekora, who also coined

Czech language Czech ( ; ), historically known as Bohemian ( ; ), is a West Slavic language of the Czech–Slovak group, written in Latin script. Spoken by over 12 million people including second language speakers, it serves as the official language of the ...

rugby terminology.

Style

Sekora became popular as an author of comic strips, published in ''Lidové noviny'' in the 1930s and at the beginning of the 1940s. He was inspired by cartoons of

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney ( ; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...

Wilhelm Busch Heinrich Christian Wilhelm Busch (14 April 1832 – 9 January 1908) was a German humorist, poet, illustrator, and painter. He published wildly innovative illustrated tales that remain influential to this day. Busch drew on the tropes of f ...

and

Albert Dubout Albert Dubout (15 May 1905 – 27 June 1976) was a French cartoonist, illustrator, painter, and sculptor. Biography Albert Dubout was born in Marseille. After attending school at Nîmes (where he met Jean Paulhan) he studied at the fine a ...

. His short stories were full of humor, with indications of situation comedy. The basis of his style was lively and dynamic drawing with clear contours, accompanied with quatrains. His verses were often inspired by folk speech. He is known as the creator of animated characters '' Ferda Mravenec'' (''"Ferda the Ant"'') and ''Brouk Pytlík'' (''"Pouch the Beetle"'').

Selected works

Books * ''Rugby, jak se hraje a jeho pravidla'' ("Rugby, How to Play It and the Rules") (1926, translated from French) * '' Ferda Mravenec'' ("Ferda the Ant") (1936) * ''Ferda Mravenec v cizích službách'' (1937) * ''Ferda v mraveništi'' ("Ferda in the Anthill") (1938) * ''Ferdův slabikář'' ("Ferda's Primer") (1939) * ''Trampoty brouka Pytlíka'' ("Troubles of Pouch the Beetle") (1939) * ''Malířské kousky brouka Pytlíka'' (1940) * ''Kuře Napipi a jeho přátelé'' ("The Chicken Napipi and its Friends")(1941) * ''Uprchlík na ptačím stromě'' (1943) (awarded at the

Expo 58 Expo 58, also known as the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (; ), was a world's fair held on the Heysel/Heizel Plateau in Brussels, Belgium, from 17 April to 19 October 1958. It was the first major world's fair registered under the Bureau Internati ...

in Brussels) * ''Ferda cvičí mraveniště'' (1947) * ''Kronika města Kocourkova'' ("The Chronicles of the Town of Kocourkov") (1947) * ''Jak se uhlí pohněvalo'' (1949) * ''Pohádka o stromech a větru'' ("Fairy Tale about the Trees and Wind") (1949) * ''O zlém brouku Bramborouku'' (1950) * ''Ferda Mravenec ničí škůdce přírody'' (1951) * ''Malované počasí'' ("Painted Weather") (1951) * ''O traktoru, který se splašil'' (1951) * ''Mravenci se nedají'' (1954) * ''Na dvoře si děti hrály'' (1955) * ''Čmelák Aninka'' ("Aninka the Bumblebee") (1959) * ''Hurá za Zdendou'' (1960) * ''O psu vzduchoplavci'' (1961) * ''Pošta v ZOO'' ("Post in ZOO") (1963) The first three books about ''Ferda Mravenec'' were published in 1960s under the title ''Knížka Ferdy Mravence'' (The Book of Ferda the Ant). Both books of ''Brouk Pytlík'' ("Pouch the Beetle") were published since 1969 under the title ''Brouk Pytlík''. Comics * ''Voříškova dobrodružství'' (1926) * ''Jak Cvoček honil pytláka'' (1932) * ''Kapitán Animuk loví v Africe'' (1934) * ''Hej a Rup'' (1935) * ''Slavnost u broučků'' (1938) * ''Kousky mládence Ferdy Mravence'' (1950) * ''Nápady kuřete Napipi'' (1961) * ''Kapitán Animuk opět loví v Africe'' (1972) Book illustration *

Jindřich Plachta Jindřich Plachta, born Jindřich Šolle (1 July 1899 – 6 November 1951) was a Czechoslovak film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films between 1926 and 1951. Selected filmography * '' The Lovers of an Old Criminal'' (1927) * '' Fathe ...

: ''Pučálkovic Amina'' (1931) *

Vladislav Vančura Vladislav Vančura (; 23 June 1891 – 1 June 1942) was a Czech writer. He was also active as a film director, playwright and screenwriter. A member of the Czech resistance during WWII, he was captured and murdered by the Nazis. Early years Va ...

: ''Kubula a Kuba Kubikula'' (1931) * Hugo Vavris: ''František Lelíček ve službách Sherlocka Holmese'' (1932) * František Langer: ''Bratrstvo bílého klíče'' (1934) *

Jiří Weiss Jiří Weiss (29 March 1913 – 9 April 2004) was a Czech film director, screenwriter, writer, playwright and pedagogue. Life Early life Jiří Weiss was born to a wealthy Jewish family in Prague. His father was a Czech patriot and named his son ...

: ''O věrné Hadimršce … a co se kolem ní sběhlo'' (1935), published by

Melantrich Melantrich (, ) was a large Czech-language publishing house connected with the Czech National Social Party. Established in 1897, the publisher remained in existence until 1999. History In 1897 the Czech National Social Party (ČSNS; no relatio ...

Arthur Ransome Arthur Michell Ransome (18 January 1884 – 3 June 1967) was an English author and journalist. He is best known for writing and illustrating the ''Swallows and Amazons'' series of children's books about the school-holiday adventures of childre ...

: ''Zamrzlá loď kapitána Flinta'' (1937) * Josef Kopta: ''Smějte se s bláznem'' (1939) * Jarmila Hašková: ''Z notesu svatého Petra'' (1940) * Jan Karafiát: ''Broučci'' (1940) *

Josef Věromír Pleva Josef Věromír Pleva (12 August 1899 – 7 September 1985) was a Czechs, Czech writer of books for children. He is best known for ''Malý Bobeš'', a book that belongs to the most important books of Czech children's literature. Biography Pleva w ...

: ''Malý Bobeš'' (1941) * Ema Tintěrová: ''Veselé příhody kozy Lujzy a kocoura Bobka'' (1942) * Jan Malík: ''Míček Flíček'' (1946) *

Mikhail Zoshchenko Mikhail Mikhailovich Zoshchenko (; – 22 July 1958) was a Soviet and Russian writer and satirist. Biography Zoshchenko was born in 1894, in Saint Petersburg, Russia, according to his 1953 autobiography. Other sources suggest that he was born i ...

: ''Psí čich'' (1946) * Eduard Štorch: ''Lovci mamutů na Bílé skále'' (1946) * Václav Čtvrtek: ''Lev utekl'' (1948) * František Němec: ''Soudničky'' (1948) * Ema Řezáčová: ''Dům na kolečkách'' (1948) * Václav Lacina: ''Slyš a piš'' ("Listen and Write") (1949) * Jarmila Minaříková: ''Ježourek a Pišta, jeho bratr'' (1949) * Irina Karnauchová: ''Chytrý sedláček a jiné pohádky'' ("Clever Peasant and Other Fairytales") (1954) *

Gianni Rodari Giovanni Francesco "Gianni" Rodari (; 23 October 1920 – 14 April 1980) was an Italian people, Italian writer and journalist, most famous for his works of children's literature, notably ''Il romanzo di Cipollino''. For his lasting contribution ...

: ''O statečném Cibulkovi'' (" The Adventures of the Little Onion") (1955) * Jan Hostáň: ''Švitořilky'' (1961)

References

External links