Jan Eskymo Welzl

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Jan Eskymo Welzl - statue in Zábřeh.
Jan Eskymo Welzl - statue in Zábřeh.

Jan Welzl (15 August 1868, Zábřeh - 19 September 1948 Dawson, Canada) was a Czech traveller, adventurer, hunter, gold-digger, Eskimo chief and Chief Justice in New Siberia and later story-teller and writer. He is known under the pseudonym Eskymo Welzl.

Rudolf Těsnohlídek began to write down his adventures on the basis of conversations with him. Pavel Eisner continued this but did not finish and later Bedřich Golombek and Edvard Valenta completed the work. The book "Třicet let na zlatém severu" (literally "Thirty Years in the Golden North") had great success in Czechoslovakia and also abroad, where people suspected that "Eskymo Welzl" did not exist and that the real author was Karel Čapek who wrote the preface to foreign editions.

The asteroid 15425 Welzl, discovered on 24 September 1998, is named after him.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Rudolf Těsnohlídek (on the basis of Welzl memoirs and letters), Paměti českého polárního lovce a zlatokopa ("Memoirs of a Czech Polar Hunter and Gold-digger"), 1928
  • Bedřich Golombek, Edvard Valenta (on the basis of Welzl's own accounts), Třicet let na zlatém severu ("Thirty Years in the Golden North")
  • Bedřich Golombek, Edvard Valenta, Po stopách polárních pokladů ("On the Tracks of Polar Treasures")
  • Bedřich Golombek, Edvard Valenta, Trampoty eskymáckého náčelníka v Evropě ("Trials of an Eskimo Chief in Europe")
  • Bedřich Golombek, Edvard Valenta, Ledové povídy Eskymo Welzla ("Ice Tales of Eskimo Welzl")
  • Rudolf Krejčí: Cesta kolem světa 1893-1898 / Jan Welzl ("Travels Around the World 1893-1898 / Jan Welzl"); [translated from a German manuscript plus accompanying texts] Pravda a fikce o životě Jana Welzla ("Truth and Fiction about the Life of Jan Welzl") and Století od jeho cesty ("A Century after his Travels") ISBN 80-7185-132-9