Václav Hrabě (June 13, 1940,

Příbram Příbram (; or ''Przibram'') is a town in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 33,000 inhabitants. It is known for its mining history, and more recently, its new venture into economic restructuring. The town is the t ...

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 ...

– March 5, 1965,

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 ...

, 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-World War II era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by members o ...

in former

Life

Hrabě was born in

to Jan Hrabě and Magdalena Kalinová. He grew up in Lochovice and attended high school in

Hořovice Hořovice (; ) is a town in Beroun District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 8,100 inhabitants. The town is known for the Hořovice Castle. Geography Hořovice is located about southwest of Beroun and southwest ...

. After graduating in 1957, Hrabě moved to

and studied

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 ...

and

History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

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 known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it contin ...

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 fathe ...

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 Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of th ...

Vladimir Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky ( – 14 April 1930) was a Russian poet, playwright, artist, and actor. During his early, Russian Revolution, pre-Revolution period leading into 1917, Mayakovsky became renowned as a prominent figure of the Ru ...

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 e ...

. 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. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

and

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

music; he taught himself to play

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

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 p ...

, 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 ...

while asleep in his apartment in the

Malá Strana Malá Strana ( Czech for "Little Side (of the River)", ) or historically 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 language, 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 C ...

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 Miroslav may refer to: * Miroslav (given name), a Slavic masculine given name * ''Young America'' (clipper) or ''Miroslav'', an Austrian clipper ship in the Transatlantic case oil trade * Miroslav (Znojmo District), a town in the Czech Republic S ...

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 (; ) 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 division Litvínov consists of 12 municipal parts (in brackets po ...

; 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 Czechoslovak male writers Czech male poets Beat Generation writers 1940 births 1965 deaths People from Příbram People from Beroun District