Jaroslav Hasek is a famous Czech writer who became very popular after writing the novel "The Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk". What is interesting about his biography and personal life?
Hasek's biography
The future writer was born on April 30, 1883 in Prague. His parents were teachers at a private gymnasium. After reaching the age of six, Yaroslav went to primary school. The child had an excellent memory, and it helped a lot in his studies. After leaving school, the boy entered the gymnasium. From that moment on, great changes began in Hasek's life.
At first, his father could not cope with constant poverty and began to drink a lot. As a result, he fell ill and died. Mom could not support the children alone. Therefore, the family began to move from one apartment to another. This had a very negative impact on Yaroslav's performance in the gymnasium. In the fourth grade, he was left for the second year.
Even then, Hasek's strong character was being established. He stood on a par with other famous revolutionaries of those times. Yaroslav often participated in demonstrations against the existing government. The whole Czech Republic was engrossed in the struggle against fascism. In 1898 Hasek dropped out of school for good. A young man gets a job as an apprentice in a pharmacy. But his violent temper and desire for freedom prompts him to go on a hike around the country with his comrades, and he quits his job.
In 1899, Hasek entered the Prague Trade Academy and graduated from it three years later. As an acquaintance, he got a job at the Bank "Slavia". But after a while, he goes on a journey again, without warning anyone. For the first time, Yaroslav is forgiven, but then it is repeated. And Hasek loses a prestigious job. But then he begins to closely engage in writing.
Yaroslav's first poems were published in 1903. The readers immediately liked them. Hasek begins to write humorous stories, which he publishes in various newspapers and magazines. Its popularity is growing every day.
But Yaroslav is not serious about his craft. He spends a lot of time in drinking establishments of that time and does not hide that he writes only for the sake of money.
Over the next several years, Hasek constantly changed his place of work. He manages to be an editor in the magazine "The World of Animals", a journalist in the newspaper "Cesko Slovo", the founder of the Kennel Institute for the Sale of Dogs, and so on. But nowhere does he stay for a long time. His cheerful and restless nature constantly creates a lot of problems for the writer. So he caught mongrels on the street, dyed them into purebred dogs and sold them. For such atrocities, Yaroslav was constantly tried and sentenced to pay a fine for deception.
In 1911 Hasek came up with a character that brought him wildly popularity. Several collections of stories about the soldier Švejk are becoming classics of world literature.
During the First World War, Yaroslav signed up for the front and was captured by the Russians. He did this deliberately to see firsthand how people live in this country. Staying in Russia during the revolution made a great impression on the writer. He returned to the Czech Republic only in 1920 and immediately wrote a novel about his protagonist, which later became a world bestseller.
The last years of his life Yaroslav lived in the small town of Lipnitsa. Here he made many friends and acquaintances. Hasek wanted to write another landmark novel for those years, but his illness suddenly cut short his life. On January 3, 1923, the Czech writer died. He was buried on the outskirts of the local cemetery next to the graves of the suicides.
During his short life, Jaroslav Hasek wrote a huge number of humorous stories and feuilletons, and also became the most famous Czech writer of all times and peoples.
Personal life of the writer
There were several women in the life of the writer. First, in the Czech Republic in 1910, he married the daughter of the sculptor Jarmila Mayerova, who gave birth to his only child, the son of Richard. Then, already in Russia, Hasek became the husband of Alexandra Lvova, a printing house worker. She stayed with him until the very last days of her life and loved him very faithfully. Upon his return to the Czech Republic, a case of bigamy was even opened against Yaroslav, which was hushed up after a while.
