Jaroslav Seifert, the first Czech winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, was primarily a poet, but he was also a journalist, translator, and prose writer. His influence on Czech literature has been felt throughout the twentieth century. Seifert was the leading representative of avant-garde art and a member of the group Devetsil (Nine Forces). First, he wrote proletarian poetry. In the 1920s Seifert and Vítezslav Nezval were the chief exponents of poetism, a major original school of poetry in Czech literature of the 1920s. During World War II Seifert became a fearless defender of Czech national culture. In his declining years, he was an outstanding representative of the democratic trend in Czech arts. As early as the mid 1950s Seifert took a courageous stance within the writers' opposition challenging the Communist totalitarian regime.

Jaroslav Seifert was born 23 September 1901 in Zizkov, a suburb of Prague, to...