LISTOPAD, FRANTIŠEK

LISTOPAD, FRANTIŠEK (originally Jiří Synek; 1921– ), Czech poet, author of fiction and essays. Born in Prague into an assimilated Jewish family, Listopad did not report for transport and from 1941 lived in the underground and took part in the resistance movement against the Nazis. After the war, he studied aesthetics and literature at Charles University in Prague and began to publish in many literary magazines. In 1947 he left for Paris; after 1948 he did not return to Czechoslovakia. In 1958 he moved to Portugal. His first collections of poems and a poem in prose "Little Loves" (1946) appeared in Czechoslovakia before 1947. Between 1947 and 1990, none of his work was allowed to be published in Czechoslovakia. Abroad, he issued collections of poems, such as Freedom and Other Fruit (1956) and Black White, I Don't Know (1973). After 1990 his collections of verses Final rondi (1992), Far Near (1993), and Kyrie Eleison (1998) appeared in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic. Human existence is the topic of Listopad's stories and lyrical prose, such as The Vicious Dog without a Garden (1996). The philosophical meditation of searching for one's place in life is the topic of many of his essays. Listopad writes and publishes in Portuguese as well, and his prose has appeared in other countries. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Čulík, Knihy za ohradou. Česká literatura v exilových nakladatelstvích 1971–1989 (s.d.); P. Kubíková and P. Kotyk, Čeští spisovatelé – Czech Writers (1999); V. Menclová et al., Slovník českých spisovatelů (2000); Slovník českých spisovatelů (1982). (Milos Pojar (2nd ed.)