Author of the radical 2000 Words manifesto for writers during the Prague Spring of 1968, Ludvík Vaculík was banned from all official publishing after the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in the decades until the fall
of communism with the Velvet Revolution of 1989. However, as founding editor of the Padlock Editions of informally circulated typescripts, he was central to maintaining independent writing and ideas in the Czech
language. This pioneering collection of witty and ironical short essays in the classic Czech genre known as feuilletons, or chronicles, show Vaculík’s philosophy, honesty and humor.

‘He is the night watchman at a temporarily shut-down enterprise whose product is the national soul.’
Los Angeles Times

After the Velvet Revolution confirmed his importance as an independent thinker and cultural figure, Vaculík continued his refusal to subscribe to accepted conventions. ‘Democracy has made me a poor democrat’, he wrote
of the new Czech age of consumer culture, media sound bites and public relations. At his death in 2015 he chose an appropriate motto for his tombstone in the country village he always called home: ‘I was here and maybe I shall return.'

Translator’s Foreword by George Theiner

Introduction by Václav Havel

Free to Use a Typewriter 

My Philosophers 

The Genie 

May Day  

Good News?

A Cup of Coffee with My Interrogator

Fatal Illness  

Funeral of a Spokesman 

On Heroism 

Jonas and the Monster 

The Spring Is Here 

How to Survive 1984 

Fences  

Thus Spake Švejk 

My Table at the Belvedere  

Walking down Příkopy 

Coffee-house Culture  

The Trail of the Lawman 

My Birthday Present 

A Day in August 

A Few Words of Advice for the British Government  

 Words . . . 

POSTSCRIPT:  Glasnost  

About the Translator 

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