Vaclav Havel Biography and latest books by Vaclav Havel

President, playwright, humorist, poet, dissident, and human rights activist, Vaclav Havel was born in 1936 in Prague. He was born to Václav Maria Havel, the owner of Barrandov and Bozena Vavřečková whose father was a renowned ambassador and journalist. He was exposed to the intellectual side of Prague; however the Communist regime did not allow Havel to have a formal education after his necessary schooling. Therefore he worked as an apprentice in a chemical laboratory for four years while taking evening classes. He enrolled at the Faculty of Economics of Czech Technical University in Prague; however, he dropped out after two years. He married Olga Havlová much to the chagrin of his mother.

Havel, after completing his military service, studied Drama from the Theater Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (DAMU). His first play was The Garden Party that won him international acclaim. It was staged in the lines of the Theater of the Absurd. Other plays followed; The Memorandum was his second play and then The Increased Difficulty of Concentration which was staged at the Public Theater in New York. Although his plays became internationally popular, they were banned from being staged in former Czecho-Slovakia. Some of his other plays are: Motormorphosis, Hitchhiking Here, An Evening with the Family, Butterfly on the Antenna, Guardian Angel, Conspirators, The Beggar\'s Opera, Unveiling, Audience, Mountain Hotel, Protest, Mistake, Largo desolato, Temptation, Redevelopment, Tomorrow, Leaving, Dozens of Cousins, and The Pig, or Václav Havel’s Hunt for a Pig.

Havel was an outspoken dissident; he made a commentary on the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czecho-Slovakia events on Radio Free Czecho-Slovakia in Liberec.

Havel became the President of former Czecho-Slovakia in 1989. He again became President of the Czech Republic in 1993 after its formation from the Czech-Slovakia split. He is known for the release of some political prisoners after the collapse of the Communist regime who he believed did not receive a fair trial or falsely implicated in the past.

Havel was politically active from the events of the Prague Spring and became famous for his role in the human rights Manifesto, Charter 77 in 1977. He was the leader of the opposition party and he was imprisoned for years. In 1989, after the Velvet Revolution, he became President.

In 1996, Havel’s wife Olga Havlová passed away. Later he married Dagmar Veškrnová. He was re-elected as President in 1998. He was instrumental in enabling the entry of the former Warsaw-Pact alliance nations into NATO and for Czech Republic’s entry into the European Union.

Havel’s belief in non-violence gathered around him several admirers. Bill Clinton compared him to Gandhi while Margaret Thatcher’s Statecraft discussed her admiration and respect for Vaclav Havel for his belief in democracy. Havel lived by the motto, “Truth and love must prevail over lies and hate.”

Vaclav Havel hosted Forum 2000 from 1997 onwards whose aim is to ‘identify the key issues facing civilization and to explore ways to prevent the escalation of conflicts that have religion, culture or ethnicity as their primary components’. He also worked on human rights concerns post his presidency as the Kluge Chair for Modern Culture at the John W. Kluge Center of the United States Library of Congress. He also worked as a visiting artist in residence at Columbia University. He was also a member of the World Future Society. On his 70th birthday, the Untitled Theater Company No. 61 introduced a Havel Festival staging his plays in several theaters across New York City.

Havel was Chair of the International Council of the Human Rights Foundation. He supported the Czech Green Party. He died in Hrádeček. He was awarded the Quadriga Award which he returned on hearing that Vladimir Putin was also one of the recipients.