Josef Hora, one of the most important figures in twentieth-century Czech literature, is famous mainly as a poet, but he also won recognition as a prose writer; literary critic; translator from Russian, German, and south Slavic languages; and literary and political publicist. His work created a link with Czech prewar modernism, closely associated with the then-fashionable artistic trends of "vitalism," extolling the exuberance of human life, and "civilism," paying homage to the arrival of a modern, technological civilization. Nevertheless, Hora never wrote purely "vitalist" or "civilist" poetry. His work is strongly influenced by the socialist movements of the 1920s and the 1930s; uncommonly, for this type of poetry, Hora emphasizes the ethics of revolutionary activity in his "proletarian" poems. Hora was never a member of any literary group, nor was he an adherent of any poetic school.

Josef Hora was born on 8 July 1891 in Dobrís near...