Open Letters by Vaclav Havel
Spanning twenty-five years, this historic collection of writings shows Vaclav Havel's evolution from a modestly known playwright who had the courage to advise and criticize Czechoslovakia's leaders to a newly elected president whose first address to his fellow citizens begins, I assume you did not propose me for this office so that I, too, would lie to you. Some of the pieces in Open Letters, such as Dear Dr. Husak and the essay The Power of the Powerless, are by now almost legendary for their influence on a generation of Eastern European dissidents; others, such as some of Havel's prison correspondence and his private letter to Alexander Dubcek, appear in English for the first time. All of them bear the unmistakable imprint of Havel's intellectual rigor, moral conviction, and unassuming eloquence, while standing as important additions to the world's literature of conscience.Vaclav Havel was elected President of Czechoslovakia in 1989 and President of the Czech Republic in 1992. He is the author of many plays, essays, collections of letters, and memoirs, including Open Letters and Summer Meditations. Paul Wilson translated or cotranslated those books as well as Havel's Letters to Olga, Disturbing the Peace, and The Art of the Impossible. Peter Steiner is Professor in the Department of Slavic Languages at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of The Deserts of Bohemia: Czech Fiction and Its Social Context and Russian Formalism: A Metapoetics, both from Cornell.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780679738114 |
| ISBN 10 | 0679738118 |
| Title | Open Letters |
| Author | Vaclav Havel |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Random House USA Inc |
| Year published | 1992-06-02 |
| Number of pages | 432 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |