Biography

Josef Škvorecký was born on September 27, 1924 in Nachod, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]. He was a writer and actor, known for Sest cerných dívek aneb Proc zmizel Zajíc? (1969), The End of a Priest (1969) and Zlocin v santánu (1968). He was married to Zdena Skvorecky. He died on January 3, 2012 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Dr. Skvorecky was awarded the C.M. (Member of the Order of Canada) on April 30, 1992 for his services to Canadian Literature.

He left Czechoslovakia during the "Prague Spring" in 1968. Subsequently, he taught American literature at the University of Toronto, where he also wrote about life as an émigré, and of Western students with no sense of history.

His most enduring character was an alter ego, Danny Smiricky, a jazz-loving admirer of Mark Twain. Danny appears in about half of Skvorecky's novels. He struggles - not always heroically - to maintain decency amid the terrors and indignities of totalitarian society.

He was a prominent member of a generation of Czech writers who gained international attention for dissident literature written in the face of Communist censorship.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

I am a Czech and I am a loyal citizen of Canada. Canada is the country where, for the first time in my adult life, I found freedom, including the freedom to be a Czech and at the same time a Canadian. My real country is the Czech language, which is the tongue I learned from my mother. (2006 interview)