Issue of the commemorative postage stamp: Bohumil Hrabal (1914-1997)

On the 26th March, 2014 the Ministry of  Industry and Trade  of the Czech Republic will  issue a commemorative postage stamp in the denomination of 17 CZK from the issue of Personalities. On the stamp is depicted Bohumil Hrabal.
Bohumil Hrabal (born Bohumil František Kylián on the 28th March, 1914 in Brno), was a Czech prose writer, one of the greatest and most original writers of the second half of the 20th century. He became the most translated Czech author of the 20th century.
He was born in Brno-Židenice to a single mother, Mary Kylianová, and an officer in the Austrian army Bohumil Blecha, who, however, denied his fatherhood, so the child was baptized Bohumil František. He received the name Bohumil Hrabal after his stepfather, whom his mother later married.
After graduating from secondary school, which he finished with difficulties, having failed several times, Hrabal studied at the Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague, but also attended lectures on the history of literature, art and philosophy. Due to the closure of universities during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia he was not able to complete his studies until 1946.
He became a professional writer as late as 1963. In 1965, he became a member of the Union of Czechoslovak Writers and worked on the editorial board of Literární noviny (Literary News). After 1970, he could not officially publish for several years and his works were published in samizdat periodicals and exile publishing houses. In 1975, he published a short self-critical statement in the weekly Tvorba (Creation) on the basis of which he was partially, under the supervision of authorities, allowed to publish again. Many of his works were published by the samizdat publisher Pražská  imaginace (Prague Imagination) from 1985 and the same publishing house, becoming official after 1989, prepared,in the years 1991–1997 Sebrané spisy Bohumila Hrabala (The Collected Writings of Bohumil Hrabal) in 19 volumes, edited by Václav Kadlec.
Many of Hrabal’s books were successfully adapted for screen and the 1966 adaptation of Ostře sledované vlaky (Closely Watched Trains), directed by Jiří Menzel, received the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. In 1968, both Hrabal and Menzel received for the film the official Klement Gottwald National Award as well. Along with Ludvik Vaculík, Karel Pecka, Jan Kameníček, Libuše Moníková and others, Hrabal is, especially for his Příliš hlučná samota (Too Loud a Solitude), considered to be a successor to Franz Kafka. 
He received numerous literary awards for his works. For example, his novel Příliš hlučná samota  (Too Loud a Solitude) won an Italian literary prize, Premio Elba - Raffaello Brignetti, the Hungarian István Bethlen Prize. and the George Theiner  Award; the novel Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále (I Served the King of England) won the National Prize of the Czech Republic and the French distinction Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of Arts and Literature); and his trilogy Svatby v domě (Weddings in the House), Vita nuova (New Life) and Proluky (Vacant Lots) won the Jaroslav Seifert Prize. In 1989, he was awarded the title Merited Artist and on the 9th May, 1996 he received an honorary doctoral degree at the University of Padua. That same year he won the Václav Havel Medal “For Merit”.
He died on the 3rd February,  1997 in Prague, falling to death from a window on the fifth floor of the orthopedic clinic of the  hospital where he was being treated.
The author of the design of  the  issue  is  the academic painter and graphic artist Marina Richterová, the engravings are the work of the graphic artist and engraver  Miloš Ondráček.
The stamp, sized 23x40 mm  has been printed  by  the Post  Printing House in Prague  by rotary recess print in black combined with photogravure in grey and light brown in printing sheets of 50 pcs. 
There  will be  1 First Day Cover incl. commemorative cancellation. In the picture part of the cover is depicted a boy holding a string which connects symbolically to the picture of stamp with reference to one of Hrabal´s works Skřivánci na niti (Larks on a string). The cover is  printed by recess print from flat plates in black-grey. On the postmark is a cat and the text: Brno, 26.3.2014
The stamp is valid from 26th March, 2014.
Czech Post