Ludvik Vaculik, July 23, 1926 - June 6, 2015
One of the outstanding Czech novelists of the postwar generation, Ludvik Vaculik has been a shoemaker, teacher, soldier, and journalist. His first novel, The Busy House, appeared in 1963. He edited Literarni Listy from 1966 until 1968. His novel The Axe, published in 1966, made Vaculik famous in Czechoslovakia. Among the writers who criticized the Novotny regime at the Writers' Union Congress in 1967, Vaculik was expelled from the party but was readmitted during the Prague Spring of 1968. At this time Vaculik wrote the Two Thousand Word Manifesto, which was signed by thousands and which some believe contributed to the Soviet leaders' decision to intervene militarily.
Vaculík died of natural causes at the age of 88 on 6 June 2015 in Prague.
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