Bohuslav Reynek

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Bohuslav Reynek was one of the most important Bohemian (Czech) poets, writers, painters and translators of the 20th century. He was born in 1892 at Petrkov Manor, Vysočina (English Bohemian Highland), and died in 1971 at Petrkov Manor. In 1904-1911 he studied at Grammar School in Jihlava (German Iglau), Bohemia. He acquired very good acquaintance of French and German language there. After short studies at Prague University, he left Prague for Petrkov. In the early 1920s he married French poet Susanne Renaud. In 1914 started his long-time and close cooperation with Josef Florian in Stará říše (translating, illustration, publishing of his own poetry).

His poems are quite meditative and inspired by the Bohemian landscape, rural life in the manor and deep Christian humanism. Reynek was also great graphic artist and an excellent translator of French and German.

After the communist revolution of 1948, Reynek's manor was confiscated and devastated, his books were prohibited and those of public libraries liquidated because of Reynek's Christian faith. He died poor with his works banned but became a poetry hero to young Czech poets of the 1960s and 1970s. His work was published in exile and after 1989 a critical and edition of his poems was completed and edited by Torst Publishing House, Prague.