Miroslav Holub

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Miroslav Holub should not be confused with the Czech actor Miloslav Holub.

Miroslav Holub (13 September 1923 – 14 July 1998) was a Czech poet and immunologist.

Miroslav Holub's work was heavily influenced by his experiences as an Immunologist, writing many poems using his scientific knowledge to poetic effect. His work is almost always unrhymed, so lends itself easily to translation. It has been translated into more than 30 languages and is especially popular in the English-speaking world. Although one of the most internationally well-known Czech poets, his reputation continues to languish at home.

Holub was born in Plzeň. His first book in Czech was Denní služba (1958), which abandoned the somewhat Stalinist bent of poems earlier in the decade (published in magazines).

In English, he was first published in the Observer in 1962, and five years later a Selected Poems appeared in the Penguin Modern European Poets imprint, with an introduction by Al Alvarez and translations by Ian Milner and George Theiner. Holub's work was lauded by many, including Ted Hughes and his influence is visible in the collection Crow (1970).

In addition to poetry, Holub wrote many short essays on various aspects of science, particularly biology and medicine (specifically immunology) and life. A collection of these, titled The Dimension of the Present Moment, is still in print. In the 1960s, he published two books of what he called 'semi-reportage' about extended visits to the United States.

Works in Translation

Vanishing Lung Syndrome, trans. David Young and Dana Habova (Oberlin College Press, 1990). ISBN 0-932440-52-5; (Faber and Faber, 1990). ISBN 0-571-14339-3
Intensive Care: Selected and New Poems, ed. David Young (Oberlin College Press, 1996). ISBN 0-932440-76-2
The Rampage, trans. David Young, Dana Hábová, Rebekah Bloyd and the author (Faber and Faber 1997) ISBN 0-571-19253
Poems Before and After: Collected English Translations (Bloodaxe Books; 2nd ed. (2006). ISBN 1-85224-747-9
Shedding Life: Disease, Politics and Other Human Conditions trans. David Young, with assistance by Dana Habova, Todd Morath, Vera Orac, Catarina Vocadlova, and the author (Milkweed Editions, 1997). ISBN 1-57131-217-X

External links

Authority control	WorldCat VIAF: 71459062 LCCN: n50028157 ISNI: 0000 0001 2138 8006 GND: 130180548 BNF: cb12315681v NKC: jk01041818

Persondata
Name	Holub, Miroslav
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	13 September 1923
Place of birth
Date of death	14 July 1998
Place of death

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.