Jan Zahradníček [SEP] place of death
Jan Zahradníček
Jan Zahradníček (January 17, 1905, Mastník, near Třebíč, Moravia − October 10, 1960, Vlčatín, near Žďár nad Sázavou, Czechoslovakia) was a Czech poet of the early and mid-20th century. Because of his writings and Catholic orientation he was imprisoned as an enemy of Communists after their coup in 1948.
From 1919 to 1926 he studied at Classical Grammar School in Třebíč. He then studied literature and comparative literature at Prague University (among his professors were František Xaver Šalda and Václav Tille)
and spirituality; Catholicism gained in importance (Kalista, Karel Schulz, Halas, Vančura, Durych). Changes were apparent first in poetry: the new generation of poets (Bohuslav Reynek, Vilém Závada, František Halas, Vladimír Holan, Jan Zahradníček) began as poetists, but their work is much darker, full of images of death and fear. The older avantgarde (Teige, Nezval) also turned away from poetism to surrealism, and a third group (Hora, Seifert, František Hrubín) turned instead to lyricism,