Jiří Mucha (born on March 12, 1915 in Prague – April 5, 1991 in Prague) was a Czech journalist, writer, screenwriter, author of autobiographical novels and studies of the works of his father, the Art Nouveau painter Alphonse Mucha.
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Born in Prague, he was working in Paris as a correspondent for Lidové noviny[1] when Germany occupied Czechoslovakia on March 15, 1939. He returned to Prague briefly for his father's funeral in July of the same year[2] but was able to return to Paris and later joined the newly formed Czech army in Agde. Following the fall of France, Mucha made his way to the United Kingdom, where he joined the Royal Air Force before becoming a war correspondent for the BBC.[3] He returned to Prague in 1945. In 1951 he was arrested by the country's Communist government for alleged espionage, and following the demands of the State Prosecutor for the death penalty, he was ultimately sentenced to hard labor in the Jachymov uranium mines. Released from prison in 1954 due to the efforts of his wife Geraldine,[4] he devoted himself to his writing and to publicizing his father's art. In 1989, following the Velvet Revolution, which brought down the communist regime, he became chairman of the Czech PEN club.[5] He died of cancer in 1991.
In 2010, a book entitled 'The Social Agent' states that Mucha allegedly acted as a 'social agent' for the StB. These allegations, which are principally based on statements given by a former StB officer who tortured Mucha whilst he was in jail, are in dispute and are of questionable historical accuracy[6]
His first wife was Czech composer Vítězslava Kaprálová (1915-1940). His second wife was Geraldine Thomsen-Mucha (1917), a Scottish born composer who lives in Prague.[7] Mucha had two children: a son, John, now President of the Mucha Foundation, with his wife Geraldine, and a daughter, Jarmila Plockova, with Vlasta Plockova.
Some of Mucha's novels are autobiographical, e.g. Studene slunce (Cold Sun) - reflecting his experience of a life in Stalinist prison - and Podivne lasky (Strange Loves) - his recollections of his relationship with Czech composer Vitezslava Kapralova and the life of a Czech emigre community in Paris at the dawn of the World War II.