Havel died on Sunday morning at his weekend house in the northern Czech Republic, his assistant Sabina Dancecova said.
Havel was his country's first democratically elected president after the nonviolent 'Velvet Revolution' that ended four decades of repression by a regime he ridiculed as "Absurdistan".
As president, he oversaw the country's bumpy transition to democracy and a freemarket economy, as well its peaceful 1993 breakup into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Even out of office, the diminutive Czech remained a world figure. He was part of the 'new Europe' - in the coinage of then-US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld - of ex-communist countries that stood up for the US when the democracies of "old Europe" opposed the 2003 Iraq invasion.
A former chain-smoker, Havel had a history of chronic respiratory problems dating back to his years in communist jails. He was hospitalized in Prague on Jan 12, 2009, with an unspecified inflammation, and had developed breathing difficulties after undergoing minor throat surgery. Havel left office in 2003, 10 years after Czechoslovakia broke up and just months before both nations joined the European Union. He was credited with laying the groundwork that brought his Czech Republic into the 27-nation bloc, and was president when it joined Nato in 1999.
Havel came to symbolize the power of the people to peacefully overcome totalitarian rule. "Truth and love must prevail over lies and hatred," Havel famously said.
He was nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize, and collected dozens of other accolades worldwide for his efforts. AP
Newspaper review: The life and times of Vaclav Havel
The death of playwright-turned-Czech President Vaclav Havel leaves many writers attempting to assess his achievements and define the man.
The Times calls him an "implausibly towering figure" in the cause of freedom, who earned a place in history for his part in communism's overthrow.
The Sun calls Havel a "hero". The Daily Telegraph says he changed the courseof modern European history.
The Financial Times judges him to be "kind, wise and modest".
'Lead actor'Those who knew Havel have been sharing their memories of him in the papers.
"The lead actor and director of a play that changed history" is how Tim Garton Ash describes him in the Guardian. But he says he stayed too long in office.
Lord Powell, who worked for Lady Thatcher, writes in the Daily Telegraph that Havel was a true hero.
He says Lady Thatcher admired Havel's courage and his speeches. Though their politics were different, he says, she never lost her affection for him.
'Ill-judged rant'David Cameron is committed to tax breaks for married couples, says the Daily Mail, despite Liberal Democrat Deputy Prime Minster Nick Clegg's opposition.
It says Mr Clegg's comments on the danger of trying to return to a 1950s family model were an "ill-judged rant."
Daily Express columnist Leo McKinstry says Mr Clegg's "sneer at traditional family structures" is absurd.
But the Times says "Mr Clegg is right" and it is not the job of legislation to provide incentives to marry.
Insurance premiumsThe Guardian's main story is that 700 top military and civil service posts could go in the next three years.
The Daily Mail is outraged that Britain is paying more than £13m a year in winter fuel payments to UK pensioners in some of Europe's warmest countries.
The Daily Mirror champions a motorist whose premiums shot up when he told his insurer he had lost his job.
The Times says housing benefit cuts mean more than 100,000 households could lose their homes in the New Year.
Related Internet links
- Daily Express
- Daily Mail
- Daily Mirror
- Daily Star
- Daily Telegraph
- Financial Times
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Full coverage
Leuenberger pays tribute to Vaclav Havel
swissinfo.ch - 13 minutes agoFormer Swiss cabinet minister Moritz Leuenberger has paid tribute to the Czech dissident playwright turned president, Vaclav Havel, who died on Sunday. Interviewed in Monday's Tages-Anzeiger newspaper, Leuenberger said he admired Havel for his ...Newspaper review: The life and times of Vaclav Havel
BBC News - 48 minutes agoThe death of playwright-turned-Czech President Vaclav Havel leaves many writers attempting to assess his achievements and define the man. The Times calls him an "implausibly towering figure" in the cause of freedom, who earned a place in history for ...Vaclav Havel, thank you for your democracy
Firstpost - 54 minutes agoPrague: The end of Czechoslovakia's totalitarian regime was called the Velvet Revolution because of how smooth the transition seemed: Communism dead in a matter of weeks, without a shot fired. But for Vaclav Havel, it was a moment he helped pay for ...Havel remembered as hero of anti-communist revolution
Detroit Free Press - 55 minutes agoMourners in Prague light candles in Wenceslas Square on Sunday, paying tribute to the former Czech Republic president. / SEAN GALLUP/Getty Images By Karel Janicek Associated Press PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- Thousands of Czechs paid tribute to Vaclav ...Canadians recall 'authentic hero'
Montreal Gazette - 1 hour agoBy JORDAN PRESS, Postmedia News December 19, 2011 12:00 AM Peter Adler did not always see eye to eye with Václav Havel, a man whom he came to know well during their youth as part of the Prague theatre scene in the 1960s. Not everyone did agree on some ...Elation at the castle gate
Montreal Gazette - 1 hour agoBy JEFF HEINRICH, The Gazette December 19, 2011 12:00 AM A Czech Republic flag shelters mourners on Sunday in Wenceslas Square, where candles were lit in memory of Václav Havel. The former Czech president, a pivotal figure in the Velvet Revolution, ...Vaclav Havel, leader of 'Velvet Revolution', dies
IBNLive.com - 1 hour agoPrague: Vaclav Havel, an anti-Communist playwright, who became Czech president and a worldwide symbol of peace and freedom after leading the bloodless "Velvet Revolution," died at the age of 75 on Sunday. The former chain smoker died at his country ...Tributes, condolences follow death of Václav Havel
Sofia Echo - 1 hour agoTributes and condolences have followed the death of the Czech Republic's former president Václav Havel on December 18 2011 at the age of 75. In a message to Czech president Václav Klaus, Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov said that Havel would remain ...Canadians recall Czech 'authentic hero' Vaclav Havel
Montreal Gazette - 1 hour agoBy Jordan Press, Postmedia News December 18, 2011 Czech President Vaclav Havel, former dissident playwright and former leading member of the Czechoslovak opposition Civic Forum, poses, in February 1997 in the garden of Prague's Castle, ...
Václav Havel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaThis article is about a person who has recently died. Some information, such as that pertaining to the circumstances of the person's death and surrounding events, may change as more facts become known. For the Czecho-Slovak canoer, see Václav Havel (canoer).Václav Havel 1st President of the Czech Republic In office
2 February 1993 – 2 February 2003Prime Minister Václav Klaus
Josef Tošovský
Miloš Zeman
Vladimír ŠpidlaPreceded by Position established Succeeded by Václav Klaus President of Czecho-Slovakia In office
29 December 1989 – 20 July 1992Prime Minister Marián Čalfa
Jan StráskýPreceded by Marián Čalfa (Acting) Succeeded by Jan Stráský (Acting) Personal details Born 5 October 1936
Prague, Czecho-Slovakia
(now Czech Republic)Died 18 December 2011 (aged 75)
Hrádeček, Czech RepublicPolitical party Civic Forum (1989–1993)
Green Party supporter (2004–2011)Spouse(s) Olga Šplíchalová (1964–1996)
Dagmar Veškrnová (1997–2011)Alma mater Technical University, Prague Signature Website www.vaclavhavel.cz
www.vaclavhavel-library.orgVáclav Havel (Czech pronunciation: [ˈvaːt͡slaf ˈɦavɛl] (
listen)) (5 October 1936 – 18 December 2011) was a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last president President of Czecho-Slovakia (1989–92) and the first President of the Czech Republic (1993–2003). He wrote over 20 plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally. Havel received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Philadelphia Liberty Medal, the Order of Canada, the freedom medal of the Four Freedoms Award, and theAmbassador of Conscience Award and several other distinctions. He was also voted 4th inProspect magazine's 2005 global poll of the world's top 100 intellectuals.[1] He was a founding signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism.[2] At the time of his death he was Chairman of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation. Equally, he was the founder of VIZE97 Foundation, and the FORUM 2000 annual global conference.
Beginning in the 1960s, his work turned to focus on the politics of Czecho-Slovakia. After thePrague Spring, he became increasingly active. In 1977, his involvement with the human rights manifesto Charter 77 brought him international fame as the leader of the opposition in Czecho-Slovakia; it also led to his imprisonment. The 1989 Velvet Revolution launched Havel into the presidency. In this role, he led Czecho-Slovakia and later the Czech Republic to multi-party democracy. His thirteen years in office saw radical change in his nation, including its split withSlovakia, which Havel opposed, its accession into NATO and start of the negotiations for membership in the European Union, which was attained in 2004.
Contents
[hide][edit]Early life
Havel was born in Prague on 5 October 1936.[3] He grew up in a well-known and wealthyentrepreneurial and intellectual family, which was closely linked to the cultural and political events in Czecho-Slovakia from the 1920s to the 1940s. His father, Václav Maria Havel, was the owner of the suburb Barrandov which was located on the highest point of Prague and ofBarrandov film studios. Havel's mother, Božena Vavřečková,[4] came from a well known family; her father was an ambassador and well-known journalist. Because of Havel's bourgeois history, the Communist regime did not allow Havel to study formally after he had completed his required schooling in 1951. In the first part of the 1950s, the young Havel entered into a four-year apprenticeship as a chemical laboratory assistant and simultaneously took evening classes; he completed his secondary education in 1954. For political reasons, he was not accepted into any post-secondary school with a humanities program; therefore, he opted to study at the Faculty of Economics of Czech Technical University in Prague but dropped out after two years.[5] In 1964, Havel married proletarian Olga Šplíchalová, much to the displeasure of his mother.
[edit]Early theater career
The intellectual tradition of his family compelled[clarification needed] Václav Havel to pursue the humanitarian values of Czech culture. Aftermilitary service (1957–59), he worked as a stagehand in Prague (at the Theater On the Balustrade – Divadlo Na zábradlí) and studied drama by correspondence at the Theater Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (DAMU). His first publicly performed full-length play, besides various vaudeville collaborations, was The Garden Party (1963). Presented in a season of Theater of the Absurd, at the Balustrade, it won him international acclaim. It was soon followed by The Memorandum, one of his best known plays, and the The Increased Difficulty of Concentration, all at the Balustrade. In 1968, The Memorandum was also brought to The Public Theater in New York, which helped establish his reputation in the United States. The Public continued to produce his plays over the next years, although after 1968 his plays were banned in his own country, Havel was unable to leave Czecho-Slovakia to see any foreign performances.[6]
[edit]Dissident
During the first week of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czecho-Slovakia, Havel provided a commentary on the events on Radio Free Czecho-Slovakia in Liberec. Following the suppression of the Prague Spring in 1968 he was banned from the theatre and became more politically active. He was forced to take a job in a brewery, an experience he wrote about in his play Audience. This play, along with two other "Vaněk" plays (so-called because of the recurring character Ferdinand Vaněk, a stand in for Havel), became distributed in samizdat form across Czecho-Slovakia, and greatly added to Havel's reputation of being a leading revolutionary (several other Czech writers later wrote their own plays featuring Vaněk).[7] This reputation was cemented with the publication of the Charter 77 manifesto, written partially in response to the imprisonment of members of the Czech psychedelic band The Plastic People of the Universe[8] detained for their involvement with the Czech underground. He co-founded the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Persecuted in 1979. His political activities resulted in multiple stays in prison, and constant government surveillance and questioning. His longest stay in prison, from June 1979 to January 1984, is documented in Letters to Olga, his late wife.
He was famous for his essays, most particularly for his articulation of "Post-Totalitarianism" (Power of the Powerless), a term used to describe the modern social and political order that enabled people to "live within a lie." In this essay Havel took issue with the concept of the 'dissident' as such, arguing that it is mainly a prescription attached to certain practices that are not by their authors categorized as dissident behaviour: one becomes a dissident mainly through the interpretation of one's behaviour by others.[9]
Truth and love prevail over lies and hateA passionate supporter of non-violent resistance, a role in which he has been compared, by former US President Bill Clinton, to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., he became a leading figure in the Velvet Revolution of 1989, the bloodless end to communism in Czecho-Slovakia. His motto was "Truth and love must prevail over lies and hate."
[edit]Presidency
Havel for PresidentVáclav Havel and Karol Sidon (left), his friend and later chief Czech RabbiFlag of the President of the Czech Republic: "The Truth Prevails"The ThinkerOn 29 December 1989, while leader of the Civic Forum, he became president by a unanimous vote of the Federal Assembly. This was an ironic turn of fate for a man who had long insisted that he was uninterested in politics. He joined many dissidents of the period arguing that political change should happen through civic initiatives autonomous from the state, rather than through the state itself. He was awarded[10] the Prize For Freedom of the Liberal International in 1990.[11][12]
After the free elections of 1990 he retained his presidency. One of the first acts in office was to issue a wide ranging amnesty releasing many political prisoners. Despite increasing tensions, Havel supported the retention of the federation of the czechs and the slovaks during the breakup of Czecho-Slovakia. On 3 July 1992 the federal parliament did not elect Havel, who was the only candidate – due to a lack of support from Slovak MPs. The largest party, the Civic Democratic Party, let it known that it would not support any other candidate. After the Slovaks issued their Declaration of Independence, he resigned as president on 20 July, saying he would not preside over the country's breakup.
However, when the Czech Republic was created, he stood for election as president on 26 January 1993, and won. Unlike in Czecho-Slovakia, he was not the Czech Republic's chief executive. However, owing to his prestige, he still commanded a good deal of moral authority.
Havel's popularity abroad surpassed his popularity at home[citation needed], and he was no stranger to controversy and criticism. An extensive general pardon, one of his first acts as a president, was an attempt to both lessen the pressure in overcrowded prisons and release those who may have been falsely imprisoned during the Communist era. He had felt that decisions of a corrupt court of the previous regime could not be trusted, and that most in prison had not been fairly tried.[13]Critics claimed that this amnesty raised the crime rate. According to Havel's memoir To the Castle and Back, most of those released had less than a year of their sentence to run. Statistics have not lent clear support to either claim.
In an interview with Karel Hvížďala (also included in To the Castle and Back), Havel stated that he felt his most important accomplishment as president was the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact. The dissolution was so complicated, the infrastructure created by the pact was ingrained in the workings of the countries and in their general consciousness, that it took two years for Soviet troops to fully withdraw from Czecho-Slovakia.
Following a legal dispute with his sister-in-law, Havel decided to sell his 50% stake in the Lucerna Palace on Wenceslas Square, a legendary dance hall built by his grandfather Václav Havel. In a transaction arranged by Marián Čalfa, Havel sold the estate to Václav Junek, a former communistspy in France and leader of the soon-to-be-bankrupt conglomerate Chemapol Group, who later openly admitted he bribed politicians of the Czech Social Democratic Party.[14]
In December 1996 the chain smoking Havel was diagnosed as having lung cancer.[15] The disease reappeared two years later. He quit smoking. In 1996, Olga, his wife of 32 years, died of cancer. Less than a year later Havel remarried, to actress Dagmar Veškrnová.[16]
The former political prisoner was instrumental in enabling the transition of NATO from being an anti-Warsaw Pact alliance to its present inclusion of former-Warsaw Pact members, like the Czech Republic. Havel advocated vigorously for the expansion of the military alliance into Eastern Europe, including the Czech Republic.[17][18]
Havel was re-elected president in 1998. He had to undergo a colostomy in Innsbruck when his colon ruptured while on holiday in Austria.[19] Havel left office after his second term as Czech president ended on 2 February 2003; Václav Klaus, one of his greatest political opponents, was elected his successor on 28 February 2003. Margaret Thatcher wrote of the two men in her foreign policy treatise, Statecraft, reserving greater respect for Havel, whose dedication to democracy and defying the Communists earned her admiration.[20][21][22]
[edit]Post-presidential career
In his post-presidency Havel focused on European affairsFrom 1997, Havel hosted Forum 2000,[23] an annual conference to "identify the key issues facing civilization and to explore ways to prevent the escalation of conflicts that have religion, culture or ethnicity as their primary components." In 2005, the former President occupied the Kluge Chair for Modern Culture at the John W. Kluge Center of the United States Library of Congress, where he continued his research in human rights.[24] In November and December 2006, Havel spent eight weeks as a visiting artist in residence at Columbia University. The stay was sponsored by the Columbia Arts Initiative and featured "performances, and panels center[ing] on his life and ideas", including a public "conversation" with former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Concurrently, the Untitled Theater Company No. 61 launched a Havel Festival, the first complete festival of his plays in various venues throughout New York City, including The Brick Theater and the Ohio Theatre, in celebration of his 70th birthday.[25][26][27][28][29][30][31] Havel was a member of the World Future Society and addressed the Society's members on 4 July 1994. His speech was later printed in THE FUTURIST magazine (July, 1995).[32]
Havel's memoir of his experience as President, To the Castle and Back, was published in May 2007. The book mixes an interview in the style of Disturbing the Peace with actual memoranda he sent to his staff with modern diary entries and recollections.[33]
On 4 August 2007, Havel met with members of the Belarus Free Theatre at his summer cottage in the Czech Republic in a show of his continuing support, which has been instrumental in the theatre's attaining international recognition and membership in the European Theatrical Convention.[34][35]
Havel's first new play in over 18 years, Leaving (Odcházení), was published in November 2007, and was to have had its world premiere in June 2008 at the Prague theater Divadlo na Vinohradech,[36] but the theater withdrew it in December as it felt it could not provide the technical support needed to mount the play.[37]The play instead premiered on 22 May 2008 at the Archa Theatre to standing ovations.[38] Havel based the play on King Lear, by William Shakespeare, and on The Cherry Orchard, by Anton Chekhov; "Chancellor Vilém Rieger is the central character of Leaving, who faces a crisis after being removed from political power."[36] The play had its English language premiere at the Orange Tree Theatre in London and its American premiere at The Wilma Theater in Philadelphia. Havel subsequently directed a film version of the play, which premiered in the Czech Republic on 22 March 2011.[39]
Other new works include the short sketch Pět Tet, a modern sequel to Unveiling, and The Pig, or Václav Havel's Hunt for a Pig, which was premiered in Brno at Theatre Goose on a String and had its English language premiere in June 2011 at the 3LD Art & Technology Center in New York, in a production from Untitled Theater Company #61.[40][41]
In 2008 Havel became Member of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation, an NGO designed to monitor tolerance in Europe and to prepare practical recommendations on fighting anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia on the continent.
Havel met with U.S. President Barack Obama at the European Union (EU) and United States (US) summit in Prague on 5 April 2009.[42] He had written Obama a letter inviting the president to come to Prague.[43]
Havel was the chair of the International Council of the Human Rights Foundation,[44] and a member of the international advisory council of theVictims of Communism Memorial Foundation.[45]
Václav Havel at Velvet Revolution Memorial (Národní Street, Prague) in 2010On the national level Havel from 2004 until his death supported Czech Green Party.[46][47][48][49]
[edit]Death
Havel died on 18 December 2011 at his country home in Hrádeček.[50][51] A week before his death, he met with fellow dissident and longtime friend, the Dalai Lama, in Prague;[52] Havel appeared in a wheelchair.[51] Within hours Havel's death was met with tributes from numerous world leaders, including US President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former Polish President Lech Wałęsa. Merkel called Havel "a great European," while Wałęsa said he should have been given the Nobel Peace Prize.[51][53]
Memorial gathering of Václav Havel in Wenceslas Square in Prague on the day of his death in 2011[edit]Awards
On 4 July 1994, Václav Havel was awarded thePhiladelphia Liberty Medal. In his acceptance speech, he said: "The idea of human rights and freedoms must be an integral part of any meaningful world order. Yet I think it must be anchored in a different place, and in a different way, than has been the case so far. If it is to be more than just a slogan mocked by half the world, it cannot be expressed in the language of departing era, and it must not be mere froth floating on the subsiding waters of faith in a purely scientific relationship to the world."[54] In 1997, he was the recipient of the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca.
In 2002, he was the third recipient of the Hanno R. Ellenbogen Citizenship Award presented by the Prague Society for International Cooperation. In 2003, he was awarded the International Gandhi Peace Prize, named after Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi by the government of India for his outstanding contribution towards world peace and upholding human rights in most difficult situations through Gandhian means. In 2003, Havel was the inaugural recipient of Amnesty International's Ambassador of Conscience Award for his work in promoting human rights.[55] In 2003, he received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom. In January 2008, the Europe-based A Different View cited Havel to be one of the 15 Champions of World Democracy. Other champions mentioned were Nelson Mandela, Lech Wałęsa and Corazon Aquino.[56] As a former Czech President, Havel was a member of the Club of Madrid.[57] In 2009 he was awarded the Quadriga Award,[58] but decided to return it in 2011 following the announcement of Vladimir Putin as one of the 2011 award recipients.[59]
Havel also received multiple honorary doctorates from various universities.[60]
In 1993, he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.[61]
[edit]Works
Havel with American poet, Hedwig Gorski[edit]Collections of poetry
- Čtyři rané básně (Four Early Poems)
- Záchvěvy I & II, 1954 (Quivers I & II)
- První úpisy, 1955 (First promissory notes)
- Prostory a časy, 1956 (Spaces and times, poetry)
- Na okraji jara (cyklus básní), 1956 (At the edge of spring (poetry cycle))
- Antikódy, 1964 (Anticodes)
[edit]Plays
- Motormorphosis 1960
- Hitchhiking Here (Autostop) 1960
- An Evening with the Family, 1960, (Rodinný večer)
- The Garden Party (Zahradní slavnost), 1963
- The Memorandum, 1965, (Vyrozumění)
- The Increased Difficulty of Concentration, 1968, (Ztížená možnost soustředění)
- Butterfly on the Antenna, 1968, (Motýl na anténě)
- Guardian Angel, 1968, (Strážný anděl)
- Conspirators, 1971, (Spiklenci)
- The Beggar's Opera, 1975, (Žebrácká opera)
- Unveiling, 1975, (Vernisáž)
- Audience, 1975, (Audience) – a Vanӗk play
- Mountain Hotel 1976, (Horský hotel)
- Protest, 1978, (Protest) – a Vanӗk play
- Mistake, 1983, (Chyba) – a Vanӗk play
- Largo desolato 1984, (Largo desolato)
- Temptation, 1985, (Pokoušení)
- Redevelopment, 1987, (Asanace)
- Tomorrow, 1988, (Zítra to spustíme)
- Leaving (Odcházení), 2007
- Dozens of Cousins (Pět Tet), 2009 – a short sketch/sequel to Unveiling
- The Pig, or Václav Havel's Hunt for a Pig (Prase), 2009 – based on a text from 1987, adapted by Valdímir Morávek in 2009
[edit]Non-fiction books
- The Power of the Powerless (1985) [Includes 1978 titular essay.] online
- Living in Truth (1986)
- Letters to Olga (Dopisy Olze) (1988)
- Disturbing the Peace (1991)
- Open Letters (1991)
- Summer Meditations (1992/93)
- Towards a Civil Society (Letní přemítání) (1994)
- The Art of the Impossible (1998)
- To the Castle and Back (2007)
[edit]Fiction books
- Pizh'duks
[edit]Films
- Odcházení, 2011
[edit]Cultural allusions and interests
- Havel was a major supporter of The Plastic People of the Universe, becoming a close friend of its members, such as its leader Milan Hlavsa, its manager Ivan Martin Jirous and guitarist/vocalist Paul Wilson (who later became Havel's English translator and biographer) and a great fan of the rock band The Velvet Underground, sharing mutual respect with the principal singer-songwriter Lou Reed, and was also a lifelong Frank Zappa fan.[62][63]
- Havel was also a great supporter and fan of jazz and frequented such Prague clubs as Radost FX and the Reduta Jazz Club, where President Bill Clinton played the saxophone when Havel brought him there.[62]
- The period involving Havel's role in the Velvet Revolution and his ascendancy to the presidency is dramatized in part in the play Rock 'n' Roll, by Czech-born English playwright Tom Stoppard. One of the characters in the play is called Ferdinand, in honor of Ferdinand Vaněk, the protagonist of three of Havel's plays and a Havel stand-in.
- In 1996, due to his contributions to the arts, he was honorably mentioned in the rock opera Rent during the song La Vie Boheme, though his name was mispronounced on the original soundtrack.
- Samuel Beckett's 1982 short play "Catastrophe" was dedicated to Havel while he was held as a political prisoner in Czecho-Slovakia.[64]
- In David Weber's Honor Harrington series, a genetic slave turned freedom fighter (and later Prime Minister of a planet of freed slaves) names himself "W. E. B. du Havel" in honor of his two favorite ancient activist writers on the subject of freedom, W. E. B. du Bois and Václav Havel.
[edit]See also
- Barrandov Terraces
- Charter 77
- Civil resistance
- Hrad
- Humanitarian bombing, a term ascribed to Havel
- Nonviolent resistance
- Ptydepe and Chorukor
- Seoul Peace Prize
- Velvet revolution
[edit]References
- ^ "Prospect Intellectuals: The 2005 List". Retrieved 6 April 2010.
- ^ "Prague Declaration – Declaration Text". 3 June 2008. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
- ^ Webb, W. L. (18 December 2011). "Václav Havel obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 December 2011.
- ^ "Havel, Vaclav 1936 – Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2011-12-18.
- ^ Vaclav Havel – Biography. The official website of Vaclav Havel . Retrieved 4 June 2008.
- ^ Vaclav Havel Obituary. Telegraph. 18 December 2011. Retrieved on 2011-12-19.
- ^ Goetz-Stankiewicz, Marketa, The Vanӗk Plays, 1987, University of British Columbia Press
- ^ Richie Unterberger, "The Plastic People of the Universe", richieunterberger.com 26 February 2007. Retrieved 29 April 2007.
- ^ Vaclav Havel, The Power of the Powerless, in: Vaclav Havel et al The power of the powerless. Citizen against the state in central-eastern Europe, Abingdon, 2010 pp.10–60 ISBN-13: 978-0873327619
- ^ "Vaclav Havel (1990)". Liberal-international.org. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
- ^ Stanger, Richard L. "Václav Havel: Heir to a Spiritual Legacy". The Christian Century (Christian Century Foundation), 11 April 1990: 368–370. Rpt. in religion-online.org ("with permission"; "prepared for Religion Online by Ted & Winnie Brock"). ["Richard L. Stanger is senior minister at Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims in Brooklyn, New York."]
- ^ Tucker, Scott. "Capitalism with a Human Face?". The Humanist (American Humanist Association), 1 May 1994, "Our Queer World". Rpt. inHigh Beam Encyclopedia (an online encyclopedia). Accessed 21 December 2007. ["Vaclav Havel's philosophy and musings."]
- ^ "Havel's New Year's address". Old.hrad.cz. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
- ^ Paul Berman, "The Poet of Democracy and His Burdens", The New York Times Magazine 11 May 1997 (original inc. cover photo), as rpt. in English translation at Newyorske listy (New York Herald). Retrieved 29 April 2007.
- ^ "Vaclav Havel: from 'bourgeois reactionary' to president", author not mentioned, Radio Prague (the international service of Czech radio)
- ^ "Vaclav Havel: End of an era" by Richard Allen Greene, BBC News online, 9 October 2003
- ^ Václav Havel, "NATO: The Safeguard of Stability and Peace In the Euro-Atlantic Region", in European Security: Beginning a New Century, eds. General George A. Joulwan & Roger Weissinger-Baylon, papers from the XIIIth NATO Workshop: On Political-Military Decision Making, Warsaw, Poland, 19–23 June 1996.
- ^ Žižek, Slavoj. "Attempts to Escape the Logic of Capitalism". Book review of Vaclav Havel: A Political Tragedy in Six Acts, by John Keane. theLondon Review of Books, 28 October 1999. Retrieved 21 December 2007.
- ^ Havel's Medical Condition Seems to Worsen, New York Times
- ^ Welch, Matt. "Velvet President", Reason (May 2003). Rpt. in Reason Online. Retrieved 21 December 2007.
- ^ Václav Havel "Famous Czechs of the Past Century: Václav Havel" – English version of article featured on the official website of the Czech Republic.
- ^ "A Revolutionary President" – Feature article on Prague tourism website, prague-life.com. ("Prague Czech Republic Travel Guide Lifeboat Limited UK Registered Company No. 5351515.")
- ^ Forum 2000 Foundation – Website of conference founded and hosted by Havel annually in Prague since 1997.
- ^ Havel, Václav (24 May 2005). Václav Havel: The Emperor Has No Clothes Library of Congress, John W. Kluge Center. Retrieved on 3 September 2009.
- ^ Havel at Columbia; "Celebrating the Life and Art of Václav Havel: New York City, October through December 2006".
- ^ Capps, Walter H. "Interpreting Václav Havel". Cross Currents (Association for Religion & Intellectual Life) 47.3 (Fall 1997). Retrieved 21 December 2007.
- ^ Biography of Václav Havel hosted by Radio Prague.
- ^ Havel at Columbia: Václav Havel: The Artist, The Citizen, The Residency – Multi-media website developed for Havel's seven-week residency at Columbia University, in Fall 2006; features biographies; timelines; interviews; profiles; and bibliographies (See "References" above).
- ^ "Honours: Order of Canada: Václav Havel" (Citation). gg.ca. Accessed 21 December 2007. (Search facility.)
- ^ "Celebrating the Life and Art of Václav Havel" Biography and "timeline" – The Havel Festival: Václav Havel, Untitled Theater Company (untitledtheater.com), in conjunction with the residency of Havel at Columbia.
- ^ (Václav) Havel Festival: Celebrating the life and art of Václav Havel, New York City, October through December 2006 – Official website of this festival of all of Havel's works; includes descriptions of all of Havel's plays.
- ^ Vaclav Havel on Transcendence. Wfs.org. Retrieved on 2011-12-19.
- ^ Pinder, Ian (16 August 2008). "Czechout". The Guardian (UK). Retrieved 28 August 2008.
- ^ "Belarus Free Theatre Meet Vaclav Havel", press release, Belarus Free Theatre, 13 August 2007. Retrieved 31 August 2007.
- ^ Michael Batiukov, "Belarus 'Free Theatre' is Under Attack by Militia in Minsk, Belarus", American Chronicle, 22 August 2007. Retrieved 31 August 2007.
- ^ a b Adam Hetrick, "Václav Havel's Leaving May Arrive in American Theatres", Playbill, 19 November 2007. Retrieved 21 December 2007.
- ^ Daniela Lazarová, "Will It Be Third Time Lucky for Václav Havel's 'Leaving'?", Radio Prague, 14 December 2007. Retrieved 21 December 2007.
- ^ "Everyone loves Havel's Leaving". Archived from the original on 30 May 2008. Retrieved 23 March 2011.
- ^ Feifer, Gregory (23 March 2011). "Havel Film Premieres In Prague". Rferl.org. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
- ^ "DIVADLO.CZ: Of Pigs and Dissidents". Host.theatre.cz. 29 June 2010. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
- ^ Callahan, Dan. "Summer Preview: Performance | Theater Reviews | The L Magazine – New York City's Local Event and Arts & Culture Guide". The L Magazine. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
- ^ "Havel's gift for Obama to be displayed in Prague gallery | Prague Monitor". Archived from the original on 11 April 2009. Retrieved 23 March 2011.
- ^ "Havel sends letter to Obama inviting him to Prague". České Noviny. 31 March 2009.[dead link]
- ^ Human Rights Foundation, International Council, accessed 13 April 2010
- ^ "International Advisory Council". Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Archived from the original on 20 May 2011. Retrieved 20 May 2011.
- ^ Zelené podpořil Havel, vymezují se proti TOP 09. Novinky.cz. 6 September 2009. Retrieved on 2011-12-19.
- ^ Zelení představili své sympatizanty – Havla, Schwarzenberga a Holubovou. Novinky.cz. 18 May 2009. Retrieved on 2011-12-19.
- ^ Havel podpořil zelené. Srovnal továrny s koncentráky. Tn.nova.cz. 18 May 2009. Retrieved on 2011-12-19.
- ^ „Jinými slovy: volme zelené!" (Dopis Václava Havla Straně zelených). zpravy.tiscali.cz. 6 September 2009
- ^ "Vaclav Havel, Czech statesman and playwright, dies at 75". AP.
- ^ a b c "Vaclav Havel, Czech statesman and playwright, dies at 75". BBC.
- ^ "Dalai Lama pays 'friendly' visit to Prague". The Prague Post. Retrieved 18 December 2011.
- ^ "World Reacts To Vaclav Havel's Death". Radio Free Europe. Retrieved 18 December 2011.
- ^ 1994 Speech Vaclav Havel – Liberty Medal, National Constitution Center
- ^ Shipsey, Bill. "Václav Havel: Ambassador of Conscience 2003: From Prisoner to President – A Tribute". Amnesty International (October 2003). Retrieved 21 December 2007.
- ^ A Different View, Issue 19, January 2008.
- ^ "The Club of Madrid". Clubmadrid.org. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
- ^ "Havel receives Quadriga prestigious German award". Prague Daily Monitor (original source: Czech Press Agency. Retrieved 5 October 2009.
- ^ German Group Cancels Prize to Putin After Outcry, New York Times, 16 July 2011.
- ^ "Honorary Doctorates". Retrieved 23 December 2008.
- ^ "Royal Society of Literature All Fellows". Royal Society of Literature. Retrieved 9 August 2010.
- ^ a b Biographies and bibliographies, "Havel at Columbia: Bibliography: Human Rights Archive". Retrieved 29 April 2007.
- ^ Sam Beckwith, "Václav Havel & Lou Reed", Prague.tv 24 January 2005, updated 27 January 2005. Retrieved 26 April 2007.
- ^ Samuel Beckett, "Catastrophe," in Collected Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett (New York: Grove P, 1994) pp. 295–302 ISBN 0802150551.
[edit]Further reading
- Works by Václav Havel
- Commentaries and Op-eds by Václav Havel and in conjunction between Václav Havel and other renowned world leaders for Project Syndicate.
- "Excerpts from The Power of the Powerless (1978)", by Václav Havel. ["Excerpts from the Original Electronic Text provided by Bob Moeller, of the University of California, Irvine."]
- "The Need for Transcendence in the Postmodern World" (Speech republished in THE FUTURIST magazine). Accessed 19 December 2011
- Václav Havel: 'We are at the beginning of momentous changes'. Czech.cz (Official website of the Czech Republic), 10 September 2007. Accessed 21 December 2007. [On personal responsibility, freedom and ecological problems].
- Two Messages Václav Havel on the Kundera affaire, English, salon.eu.sk, October 2008
- Media interviews with Václav Havel
- After the Velvet, an Existential Revolution? dialogue between Václav Havel and Adam Michnik, English, salon.eu.sk, November 2008
- Warner, Margaret. "Online Focus: Newsmaker: Václav Havel". The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. PBS, broadcast 16 May 1997. Accessed 21 December 2007. (NewsHour transcript.)
- Books (Biographies)
- Keane, John. Vaclav Havel: A Political Tragedy in Six Acts. New York: Basic Books, 2000. ISBN 0465037194. (A sample chapter [inHTML and PDF formats] is linked on the author's website, "Books".)
- Kriseová, Eda. Vaclav Havel. Trans. Caleb Crain. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993. ISBN 0312103174.
- Pontuso, James F. Vaclav Havel: Civic Responsibility in the Postmodern Age. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004. ISBN 0-7425-2256-3.
- Rocamora, Carol. Acts of Courage. New York: Smith & Kraus, 2004. ISBN 1575253445.
- Symynkywicz, Jeffrey. Vaclav Havel and the Velvet Revolution. Parsippany, New Jersey: Dillon Press, 1995. ISBN 0875186076.
[edit]External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Václav Havel Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Václav Havel - Václav Havel Official website
- Václav Havel archive from The New York Review of Books
- Havel at Columbia: Bibliography: Human Rights Archive
- Havel Festival
- The Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Persecuted (VONS) (Website about a history of the VONS)
- Václav Havel at the Literary Encyclopedia
- Notable Names Database
- Václav Havel Official Digital Archive
- Václav Havel Library, Prague
- Vaclav Havel in THE FUTURIST magazine
Political offices Preceded by
Marián Čalfa
ActingPresident of Czecho-Slovakia
1989–1992Jan Stráský
ActingPosition established President of the Czech Republic
1993–2003Succeeded by
Václav KlausTemplate:Presidents of Czecho-Slovak Republic
[show] [show] Recipients of the Charlemagne Prize[show] [show] [show] Austrian State Prize for European Literature recipients[show] Fall of CommunismNever again Czecho-Slovakia That country was not good for Slovak people. Official name from May 30th 1918 is Czecho-Slovakia. Czechs changed the name in February 1920 to "Czechoslovakia". I am very happy that the country does not exist anymore.
Categories:- 1936 births
- 2011 deaths
- Austrian State Prize for European Literature winners
- Charlemagne Prize recipients
- Charter 77 signatories
- Czech Roman Catholics
- Collars of the Order of the White Lion
- Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
- Companions of the Order of Canada
- Czech dramatists and playwrights
- Czech politicians
- Erasmus Prize winners
- Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
- Grand Collars of the Order of the Southern Cross
- Grand Crosses Special Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
- Honorary Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
- Language creators
- Olof Palme Prize laureates
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- Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
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- Prix mondial Cino Del Duca winners
- Recipients of the Collar of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana
- Recipients of the Gandhi Peace Prize
- Recipients of the Gottlieb Duttweiler Prize
- Recipients of the Indira Gandhi Peace Prize
- Recipients of the Order of the Three Stars, 1st Class with Chain
- Recipients of the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk
- Recipients of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade
- Theatre of the Absurd
Timeline of articles
Number of sources covering this storyWhat Vaclav Havel Understood: Only Democracy Guarantees Peace16 hours ago - The AtlanticVáclav Havel19 hours ago - The GuardianVaclav Havel, Czech dissident, playwright, politician dead at 7520 hours ago - CNN (blog)Havel, Czech dissident playwright who led 1989 anti-communist 'Velvet ...20 hours ago - Washington PostImages
IBNLive.comBBC NewsFrumForumVideos
Prague: Vaclav Havel (75) dies, with his wife on his side [18-Dec-11 © EuroNews]
YouTube - 13 hours agoWatch video - Guardian
- Independent
- Morning Star
- Sun
- Times
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