Jiří Mucha

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Jiří Mucha (March 12, 1915 – April 5, 1991) was a Czech author of autobiographical novels and studies of the works of his father, the noted artist Alfons Mucha.

Born in Prague, he was in Paris when Germany occupied Czechoslovakia in September 1938. He returned to Prague upon the death of his father, but was able to obtain permission to return to Paris as a war correspondent, eventually making his way to the United Kingdom, joining the RAF and working for the Czech government-in-exile. He returned to Prague in 1947, but was arrested the following year by the country's new Communist government because he had served in the British military. Released from prison in 1953, he devoted himself to his writing and to publicizing his father's art, spending most of his life overseas. Living in Paris at the time of the Velvet Revolution, which brought down the communist regime, he returned to Prague, where he died two years later, in 1991.

Apart from his biographical works about his father, Mucha's works have received little attention in English. They include (in Czech):

• Spálená setba
• Studené slunce
• Podivné lásky

One book by Mucha, "LIVING AND PARTLY LIVING the Personal Journal of a Czech Writer in a Stalinist Prison", was published in English in 1967. As a political prisoner Mucha worked in a coal mine under terrifying conditions. Other miners who were not prisoners brought him writing materials from outside, which he stashed in secret places in the mine. During alerts when the mine threatened to cave in, Mucha jotted his reflections on what it was like to be only partly living. A stunning book available for purchase on line as a used book.