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Ways to Escape

The Child’s World and the Changing Fate of the Poet Kamil Bednář

Summary/Abstract: Apart from being a poet and translator, Kamil Bednář (1912–1972) was the author ofdozens of books for children. Beginning in the 1960s, children’s books comprisedhis main writing and influenced his verse. This interdisciplinary contribution looksfirst at Bednář’s verse and essays in order to discover what led him to write booksfor children, and it does so on several levels. In addition to Bednář’s graduallyleaving the world of regime-sanctioned literature, by escaping into the garden ofhis imagination, which evoked in him magical, fairy-tale ideas, the study discussesthe work leading to the actual publishing of his books, as well as Bednář’s attitudesto fine art and his ability to combine different fields of art, particularly literature,with illustration, music, dance, and theatre. Bednář eventually linked togethereveryday life with the world of art and imagination, and created a complex worldof art, in which he took shelter. This was his distinctive way of coming to termswith the changes in politics and society in the Communist dictatorship.

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