Bohumil Hrabal was born in Brno (Balbínova ul. 47, ?idenice district [1]) in what was then the province of Bohemia in the Austro-Hungarian empire to an unmarried mother, Marie Bo?ena Kiliánová (b. 1894-d. 10 February 1970). According to the organisers of a recent Hrabal exhibition in Brno, his biological father was “probably” Bohumil Blecha (b.1893-d, 1970), who was a year older than Marie, a friend from the neighbourhood and the son of a teacher. Marie’s parents opposed the idea of their daughter marrying Blecha, who was about to enter the imperial army[2]. Blecha served on the Italian front, before being invalided out of service[3]. Blecha’s daughter, Drahomíra Blechová-Kalvodová, says her father told her when she was 18 that Hrabal was her half-brother. Bohumil and his biological father never met formally, according to Blechová-Kalvodová. Hrabal and Blechová-Kalvodová met twice; a dedication in a picture from 1994 says: "To sister Drahomíra, Hrabal! 28. 3. 94."
Hrabal was baptized Bohumil Franti?ek Kilián. Until the age of three, he lived principally with his grandparents, Kate?ina Kiliánová (neé Bartlová)(d. 1950)[4] and Tomá? Kilián (d. 1925, a descendant of a French soldier injured at the battle of Austerlitz, on the outskirts of Brno), in Brno while his mother worked in Polná as an assistant book-keeper in the town's brewery. She worked there with her future husband, Franti?ek Hrabal (b. 1889-d. 5 June 1966); a Franti?ek Hrabal was listed as Bohumil's godfather when he was baptized on 4 February 1914, but Franti?ek was also the first name of Bohumil's future step-grandfather, a soft-drinks trader. Franti?ek Hrabal, Hrabal’s stepfather, was a friend of Hrabal’s probable biological father, according to Blechová-Kalvodová.
Marie and Franti?ek married in February 1916, shortly before Bohumil's second birthday. Hrabal's half-brother, B?etislav Josef Hrabal, was born later that year (b. 25 September 1916-d. 30 May 1985); B?etislav (Slávek) is said to have been an excellent raconteur[5]. The family moved in August 1919 to Nymburk, a small town on the banks of the Labe (Elbe), where Franti?ek Hrabal became the brewery's manager[6]. Both of Hrabal's parents were active in amateur dramatics.
Hrabal’s uncle was Bohuslav Kilián (1892-1942), a lawyer, journalist and publisher of the cultural magazines Salon and M?síc (the latter had a German version, Der Monat, that was distributed throughout Europe, but not in Nazi Germany) .
In 1920, Hrabal began at the primary school in Nymburk. In September 1925, he spent one year at a grammar school in Brno (now Gymnázium t?ída Kapitána Jaro?e, which was later attended by another famous Czech writer, Milan Kundera). He failed the first year; he later attended a technical secondary school in Nymburk. There too he struggled to concentrate on his studies, despite extra classes given to him by his uncle[7].
In June 1934, Hrabal left school with a certificate that said he could be considered for a place at university on a technical course. Hrabal took private classes in Latin for a year, passing a state exam in the town of ?eský Brod with an 'adequate' grade on 3 October 1935. Four days later, on 7 October 1935, he registered at Prague's Charles University to study for a Law degree. He completed the course only in March 1946 as Czech universities were closed during the Nazi occupation, starting in November 1939. During the war, he worked as railway labourer and dispatcher in Kostomlaty, near Nymburk, an experience reflected in one of his best-known works Ost?e sledované vlaky (Closely Observed Trains). He worked variously as an insurance agent (September 1946-July 1947), a travelling salesman (September 1947-1949) and as a manual laborer alongside the graphic artist Vladimír Boudník in the Kladno steelworks (1949-1952), an experience that inspired the "hyper-realist" texts he was writing at the time. After a serious injury, he worked in a recycling mill in the Prague district of Libe? as a paper-packer (October 1954-February 1959), before working as a stagehand (18 February 1959-1 January 1962) at the S. K. Neumann Theatre (Divadlo S. K. Neumanna, now Divadlo pod Palmovkou).
Hrabal lived in the city from the late 1940s onward, for much of it (1950-1973) at 24 Na Hrázi ul. in Prague - Libe?; it was demolished in the spring of 1988. In 1956, Hrabal married Eli?ka Plevová ('Pipsi' to Hrabal and in some of his works), the 30-year-old (b. 3 May 1926) daughter of Karel Pleva, a procurator and manager of a wood factory in the South Moravian town of B?eclav. In 1965, the couple bought a country cottage in Kersko, near Nymburk; the cottage became home to his numerous cats. Eli?ka died in 1987 (31 August).
Hrabal began as a poet, producing a collection of lyrical poetry in 1948 (Ztracená uli?ka). It was withdrawn from circulation when the communist regime was established. In the early 1950s, Hrabal was a member of an underground literary group run by Ji?í Kolá?, an artist, poet, critic and central figure in Czechoslovak culture. (Another member of the group was the novelist Josef ?kvorecký.) Hrabal produced stories for the group, but did not seek publication.
Two stories by Hrabal (Hovory lidí) appeared in 1956 as a supplement in the annual Zprávy spolku ?eských bibliofil? (Report of the Association of Czech Bibliophiles). It had a print-run of 250. Hrabal's first book was withdrawn a week before publication, in 1959. It was eventually published in 1963, as Perli?ka na dn? (Pearl on the Bottom). In the same year, he became a writer by profession. Tane?ní hodiny pro star?í a pokro?ilé (Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age) followed in 1964 and Ost?e sledované vlaky (Closely Observed Trains) in 1965.
After the invasion of Czechoslovakia by troops from the Warsaw Pact, Hrabal was banned from publishing. In 1970, two of his books — Domácí úkoly and Poupata — were banned, after they had been printed and bound but before they were distributed. In the following years, he published several of his best-known in underground (samizdat) editions (including M?ste?ko, kde se zastavil ?as [The Little Town Where Time Stood Still] and Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále [I Served the King of England]).
In 1975, Hrabal gave an interview to the publication Tvorba in which he made ‘self-critical’ comments that enabled some of his work to appear in print. Some of the comments indicate editorial insertions (“as a Czech writer I feel connected to the Czech people, with its Socialist past and future [italics added]”). Some young dissidents were incensed — some burnt his books and the singer Karel Kryl called him a “whore”. Hrabal's decision enabled at least some of his work to reach the broader Czechoslovak readership. Many of his works, though, were printed only in underground editions abroad, including arguably his most powerful novel P?íli? hlu?ná samota (Too Loud a Solitude).
Hrabal steered clear of political engagement; he was not a signatory of Charter 77, a protest against the communist regime drawn up principally by Václav Havel, Jan Pato?ka, Zden?k Mlyná?, Ji?í Hájek, and Pavel Kohout.
Hrabal's two best-known novels are Closely Observed Trains (Ost?e sledované vlaky) (1965) and I Served the King of England (Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále), both of which were made into movies by the Czech director, Ji?í Menzel (1966 and 2006, respectively). Menzel's adaptation of Closely Observed Trains won an Oscar in 1967.
Hrabal was a great raconteur, much of his story-telling taking place in his favourite pub, U zlatého tygra (At the Golden Tiger) on Husova Street in Prague. He met the Czech President Václav Havel, the American President Bill Clinton and the US ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright at U zlatého tygra on 11 January 1994.
Death
He died when he fell from a window on the fifth floor of the Bulovka hospital in Prague where he was apparently trying to feed pigeons. It was noted that Hrabal lived on the fifth floor of his apartment building and that suicides by leaping from a fifth-floor window were mentioned in several of his books. He was buried in his family's crypt in a cemetery in Hradi?tko. As he wished, he was buried in an oak coffin with the inscription Pivovar Polná (Polná Brewery), the brewery where his mother and step-father met.
Style
He wrote in an expressive, highly visual style. He affected the use of long sentences; in fact his work, Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age (Tane?ní hodiny pro star?í a pokro?ilé) (1964) consists of a single sentence. Political quandaries and their concomitant moral ambiguities are a recurrent theme. Many of Hrabal's characters are portrayed as "wise fools" - simpletons with occasional inadvertently profound thoughts - who are also given to coarse humour, lewdness, and a determination to survive and enjoy oneself despite harsh circumstances.
Much of the impact of Hrabal's writing derives from his juxtaposition of the beauty and cruelty found in everyday life. Vivid depictions of pain human beings casually inflict on animals (as in the scene where families of mice are caught in a paper compactor) symbolize the pervasiveness of cruelty among human beings. The adult human world is revealed as terrifying, and, in the end, perhaps the only sane philosophy is a line delivered in Closely Observed Trains: "You should have stayed home on your arse". His characterizations also can be comic, giving his prose a baroque/mediaeval tinge.
Along with Jaroslav Ha?ek, Karel ?apek and Milan Kundera ... likewise imaginative and amusing satirists ... he is considered one of the greatest Czech writers of the 20th century. His works have been translated into 27 languages.
