Jaroslav Durych
Jaroslav Durych (2 December 1886 – 7 April 1962) was a Czech prose writer, poet, playwright, journalist, and military surgeon.
Jaroslav Durych

Anonymous Unknown author · https: archiv.ucl.cas.cz/index.php?path=RozAvn/6.1930-1931/1/1.png · Public domain
- Born
- 1886.
- Died
- 1962.
- Nationality
- Czechoslovakia and Austria–Hungary.
- Occupation
- translator, poet, journalist, physician, playwright, writer, critic and opinion journalist.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Jaroslav Durych (2 December 1886 – 7 April 1962) was a Czech prose writer, poet, playwright, journalist, and military surgeon.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
No house-authored Note is published until its assertions and sources pass the VALÉORINE evidence contract. The documentary article remains available in full while that enrichment is being consolidated.
Documentary enrichment in progress · no unsupported statement published
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Jaroslav Durych. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
Documentary evidence
Evidence Panel
not yet certified
- Identity
- resolved
- Independent source families
- 0
- Admitted assertions
- 0
- Open conflicts
- 0
Authority files
wikidata · Q164957 · wikipedia · Jaroslav Durych
In this article
Life and works
Life and works
Durych was born in Hradec Králové and was orphaned at an early age. He attended school at the Archbishop's convent in Příbram, but was expelled for reading forbidden literature. Later, he was able to attend medical school in Prague, thanks to a military scholarship, and graduated in 1913. After serving as a military doctor in Galicia during World War I, he established a private practice in Přerov. This proved to be an unsuccessful enterprise, however, and he returned to the Army; rising to the rank of Colonel. From 1923 to 1930, he served as the head of the military hospital near Olomouc. In 1935, he was elected to the Czech Academy of Arts and Sciences, but resigned in 1938 following the Anschluss. Throughout the Nazi occupation and the communist regime, he remained isolated and was able to publish only a few newspaper articles, written under pseudonyms. Under the influence of Josef Florian, he published his first novel, Bloudění (Wandering, 1929), an historical piece set in the time of the Thirty Years' War, then Služebníci neužiteční (Roughly: Useless Servants), a novel about Jesuit missionaries in 17th-century Japan, led by Charles Spinola. Only the first part could be published in Czechoslovakia, because Durych was silenced following the Communist coup d'état in 1948. A full four volume edition was published in Rome in 1969. Bloudění was translated into English as Descent of the Idol and published in the United States in 1936. Durych's Catholic viewpoint was often at odds with the prevailing intellectual climate in the Czechoslovak First Republic; notably his positive evaluation of the developments in Bohemia and baroque culture in general that followed the Battle of White Mountain. Durych felt that the loss suffered there by Frederick V of the Palatinate saved Bohemia from becoming a part of Germany. He was also the target of heavy criticism for supporting the Falangist side during the Spanish Civil War. Durych died in Prague.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1886
Jaroslav Durych born at Hradec Králové.
1962
Jaroslav Durych died at Prague.
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
39,078 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Jarkko TonttiAuthor
- Jarl HemmerAuthor
- Jaromír NohavicaAuthor
- Jaromír ŠtětinaAuthor
- Jaroslav Erik FričAuthor
- Jaroslav FikejzAuthor
- Jaroslav FoglarAuthor
- Jaroslav GollAuthor
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Jaroslav Durych?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.