Adresát Bohuslav Havránek

The collection includes academic and personal correspondence addressed to Bohuslav Havránek, a prominent 20th-century linguist, covering the period from 1924 to 1977. The main part of the collection dates to the 1940s and 1950s and was written by three distinguished scholars: František Trávníček, Vladimír Šmilauer, and Bohuslav Havránek (with lexicographer Alois Získal also having made valuable contributions). Their work, interests, and fates intertwine in the letters and escalate after the war, forming an interesting and revealing part of the entire correspondence and, sometimes in a turbulent and confrontational manner, documenting the development of Czech linguistics amid the changing political situation of the time.
The other key theme of the correspondence is revealed in the letters from Havránek’s students Miloš Dokulil, Karel Horálek, František Kopečný, and Oldřich Králík, which are more individual. Although they capture several moments reacting to social events, they primarily address academic research, often in connection with requests for advice or assistance in resolving personal and professional issues.
The book is being published to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Prague Linguistic Circle.