Štěpán Jež a Josef Hobzek jako odpovědní redaktoři časopisu Lumír
Štěpán Jež and Josef Hobzek as Editors-in-Chief of Lumír

Summary/Abstract: This study commemorates the last two editors-in-chief of the Lumír literary magazine, whose lives and works have so far been largely neglected in the history of Czech literature. The critic Štěpán Jež (1885–1970) began writing for Lumír while still at university, and during his long life he held a number of posts in the literature section of the Umělecká beseda (Art forum), in the Kruh českých spisovatelů (Czech writers’ circle) and on the editorial board of Lumír. In autumn 1939, a member of the younger generation, Josef Hobzek (1908–1989), took over from Jež as editor-in-chief of Lumír. It was assumed that with his training as a lawyer he would be better suited for official negotiations with the Nazi German authorities occupying the country. Hobzek, brought up in circles close to the upper levels of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, shared their conservative views of politics and the arts. In the Roman Catholic press he devoted himself to promoting the intellectual legacy of the historian Josef Pekař (1870–1937), even marrying one of Pekař’s relations towards the end of the Second World War. Hobzek and Jež devoted most of their professional energy to the required organizational and editorial work, which helped to create the cultural environment and literary operations, but remained in many respects concealed from the general public. Later, after the Second World War, they no longer had an opportunity to realize publicly their literary ambitions or apply their broad learning and interests. In the new circumstances of Communist Czechoslovakia they were forced to give up their plans as writers and editors.

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