Life story
Bohumil Hrabal was born in 1914 in Židenice near Brno, though he grew up in Nymburk, where his stepfather managed a brewery. He studied law at Charles University, but never became a lawyer.
He worked in a variety of occupations — as a notary's clerk, insurance agent, commercial traveler, from 1949 as a laborer in the Kladno steelworks, and later as a waste paper sorter and stagehand. Those years provided him with both material and language: his characters speak as people actually do in Bohemia. He became a professional writer only in 1963.
He made his debut late but with considerable impact. He wrote Perlička na dně, Pábitelé, Taneční hodiny pro starší a pokročilé, Ostře sledované vlaky, Postřižiny, Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále, and Příliš hlučnou samotu. The film adaptation of Ostře sledované vlaky directed by Jiří Menzel won an Oscar. After 1970, he was forbidden to publish officially for several years and wrote for samizdat and exile periodicals.
He is regarded as one of the most significant and distinctive Czech prose writers of the second half of the 20th century. He died on 3 February 1997 in Prague.
Constellation of Life
Important milestones that shaped their journey.