Václav Havel (1936-2011) Czech, 'A Word About Words' Limited Edition Book. The Cooper Union New York 1992 edition. Illustrations by Jiri Kolar. The project was conceived by George Sadek and published by The Cooper Union in cooperation with the Václav Havel secretariat in Prague. This is copy 48 out of 500 copies. This book is a reflection on the power of words, their connection to freedom, and the mysteries they have woven into human history. 

Size: 17 3/8 x 11 7/8 in. 

#8288 . 

Václav Havel was born on October 5th, 1936 to a wealthy family in Prague. He grew up to be one of the most important Czech statesmen in modern history, as well as an author, poet, playwright and dissident. In the early 1950s his educational opportunities were limited by his bourgeois background under the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, so he entered a four-year apprenticeship as a chemical laboratory assistant while taking evening classes at a gymnasium. He was not accepted to any post-secondary schools, and opted to study at the Faculty of Economics at the Czech Technical University in Prague, although he dropped out after two years. He served in the military from 1957 to 1959, and in 1963 he married Olga Šplíchalová, who encouraged him to explore occupations that would not be so scrutinized by the government. He found employment as a stagehand at Prague’s Theatre ABC, while also studying the dramatic arts by correspondence through the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (DAMU). His first full-length play performed in public was The Garden Party in 1964, which won him broad European attention, particularly from adherents of the Theatre of Absurd. In 1968 his play The Memorandum was also brought to The Public Theater in New York, establishing Havel’s reputation in the United States, but this led to his plays being banned from production in his own country, and he was forbidden to leave Czechoslovakia to see any foreign performances of his works. After participating in the Prague Spring and being blacklisted after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, he became more politically active and helped found several dissident initiatives, including Charter 77 and the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted. His political activities brought him under the surveillance of the StB secret police, and he spent multiple periods as a political prisoner, the longest of his imprisoned terms being nearly four years between 1979 and 1983. Havel’s Civic Forum party played a major role in the Velvet Revolution that toppled Communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989.  Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissolution of Czechoslovakia on December 31st, before he became the first president of the Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003. He was the first democratically elected president of either country after the fall of Communism. Havel was instrumental in dismantling the Warsaw Pact and enlargement of NATO membership eastward. Many of his stances and policies, such as his opposition to Slovak independence, condemnation of the treatment of Sudeten Germans and their mass expulsion from Czechoslovakia after World War II, as well as granting of general amnesty to all those imprisoned under the Communist era, were very controversial domestically. By the end of his presidency, he enjoyed greater popularity abroad than at home. Havel continued his life as a public intellectual after his presidency, launching several initiatives including the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism, the VIZE 97 Foundation, and the Forum 2000 annual conference. He received numerous accolades during his lifetime, including the American Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Gandhi Peace Prize, the Philadelphia Liberty Medal, the Order of Canada, the Four Freedoms Award, the Ambassador of Conscience Award, and the Hanno R. Ellenbogen Citizenship Award. Havel died on December 18th, 2011 at his home, and has been widely regarded since as one of the most important intellectual voices in both theater and politics of the 20th Century.