Eduard Petiška

Total sales of his works have exceeded eighteen million copies. His most famous works include Ancient Greek Myths and Legends and stories about Krtek. The father of writer Martin Petiška.

Petiška was born in Prague on 14 May 1924. He shared his love of books with his father who was a classmate of Jaroslav Hašek, who sat next to him. Hašek later used Petiška's name in his own writings. His Father also worked at an insurance company with Franz Kafka, and was among the first audience for Kafka's writings. The poet's mother, born Adeline Windant, gave up her career of an opera singer. Petiška had been accepted to a music conservatory (to become an actor or opera singer) when war changed his life. Due to the Nazi occupation he was forced to work as a lathe hand in Volmanov's factory in Čelákovice instead of taking up his studies. Petiška had been attracted to stories and people's fates since childhood. He began as a listener (his famous book of German fairytales, Daisy, is based on stories his grandmother used to tell him), and later a passionate reader, who began to try writing prose of his own. After 1945 he studied Comparative Literature and Germanics, but attended other classes as well, including aesthetics and medicine. After the liberation he immediately involved himself in cultural life, at first (while still a student) as a poet. He started publishing prose and poetry, wrote articles for newspapers and children's magazines, was active in Umělecká beseda (an artists' union), and worked in film and radio. He was also an active member of the Czech Writers Syndicate (Syndikát českých spisovatelů). He planned to shoot "film poetry" (a sort of predecessor of today's video clips) with Konstantin Biebl. These activities were suddenly disrupted after February 1948. He married Alena, a teacher from an old family of teachers, in the same year (at the age of 24). His wife was a great support to him during his whole life, creating a harmonious home in which Petiška's work could flourish. Their son, Martin, who later became a writer himself, was a frequent source of inspiration to his father. You can find Martin in Petiška's books: Martin's Reading Book, How Martin Got Lost, etc. Petiška had many friends in artistic circles; he associated especially with people who, like himself, were marginalized during the 1950s. These included writers Jaroslav Seifert, František Hrubín, Bohumil Hrabal and Emanuel Frynta; and artists Jiří Kolář, Kamil Lhoták, Zdeněk Miler, Karel Teissig, Vladimír Komárek, Zdeněk Sklenář, Vilém Plocek who illustrated his books, Cyril Bouda and Helena Zmatlíková. An unofficial club originated in his apartment in Brandýs nad Labem during the 1950s – it served as a meeting place for his friends where they could read their writings and discuss innovations in the world of arts.

This book, probably the most famous of Petiška's works, was written when he did not believe that the communist regime would ever allow him to write for adults again. He conceived it as a "novel about life in Bohemia" – about Czech hopes and despairs, the gods representing particular political ideologies or attitudes. This archetypal narration is probably the reason the book is a worldwide success. It is not merely a simple retelling of ancient myths – it is a compact account of human life and character. This message is understandable in all the many languages it has been translated into (including German, English, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Hungarian, Estonian and Slovenian). In France it had been published twenty five times by 2011, and was part of school literature curriculums. Ancient Greek Myths and Legends was the key work of Petiška's literary production. This theme, which other writers overlooked because they perceived it as too elaborate and trivial, became the basis of his career; he became a favorite storyteller for both children and adults, narrating about pressure and happiness, fidelity and betrayal, and about the brevity and potential of life.