Egon Bondy

He also published about twenty novels, including Invalidní sourozenci, most of them dealing with the topic of crisis in an individual vis a vis society. Despite the deep, existential background of his work, the texts are fresh and entertaining. He himself most valued his philosophical works. In the late 1940s, Zbyněk Fišer first took on the name Egon Bondy when preparing a 1949 anthology with his surrealist group whose authors all adopted Jewish pseudonyms. Bondy had been the name of a number of prominent Prague Jews (as well as the name of a character in Karel Čapek's classic War with the Newts). A radical Marxist, he was nevertheless dismayed by the Stalinist regime that set in after the 1948 coup in Czechoslovakia. From 1957 to 1961, he studied philosophy and psychology at Charles University in Prague. Thereafter he launched his serious intellectual work with the help of the philosopher Milan Machovec, who became his lifelong friend. He was also a close friend of another famous Prague writer, Bohumil Hrabal. From the 1960s, he was considered a key figure of the Prague underground, particularly once his texts were set to music by The Plastic People of the Universe in the 1970s. His works, suppressed by the 1970s and 1980s normalization regime, were circulated only as samizdat. After the Velvet Revolution, in the 1990s, Bondy moved from Prague to Bratislava. Bondy was always interested in the study of Karl Marx and in the criticism of both contemporary capitalism and state socialism. At times he took interest in Trotskyism and Maoism for the same reasons. His philosophical work concerns ontological and related ethical problems. He attempts to show the relevance of ontology without any substance or grounding. Aside from Marxism and other non-essentialist currents of modern European philosophy, his notable sources for this line of thinking included Buddhist and Daoist philosophy. He was one of few original 20th century European philosophers to systematically study non-European philosophies, dedicating much of his multi-volume history of philosophy (which has been criticized by academic authors as giving a highly personal perspective) to Indian, Chinese and Islamicate philosophies. Milan Machovec praised his Consolation of Ontology (1968) as a landmark philosophical work, and his son Martin Machovec later became the editor of Bondy's works.

Egon Bondy studied at Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. The recorded working language is Czech. The field of work recorded is writer, creative and professional writing and poetry. Places of work recorded in the authority are Slovakia. Work by Egon Bondy is recorded in the collections of Samizdat Collection of Czechoslovak Documentation Centre, Czech Exile Collection at Libri Prohibiti, Czech Samizdat Collection at Libri Prohibiti, Václav Havel Library and Jiří Ruml Collection. Distinctions recorded are Egon Hostovský Prize.

• Name — Egon Bondy • Born — 20 January 1930 • Birthplace — Prague • Died — 9 April 2007 • Place of death — Bratislava • Occupation — philosopher, writer, poet