Jaroslav Hašek

Jaroslav Hašek was a Czech humorist and satirist, born in Prague on 30 April 1883. He worked as a bank clerk and journalist, wrote many short comic stories and sketches, and lived a restless, bohemian life with a strong anarchist streak. He was famous in Prague for his pranks and for his disregard of authority.

During the First World War he served in the Austro-Hungarian army, was captured on the Russian front, and later took part in the political and military upheavals in Russia. He returned to Czechoslovakia in 1920. His great work, the unfinished novel about the soldier Švejk, drew on his own experience of army life and bureaucracy. It became one of the most translated Czech books and a classic of anti-war comedy. Hašek died on 3 January 1923, before he could finish it.