Josef Svatopluk Machar

Josef Svatopluk Machar
Josef Svatopluk Machar before 1923
Born	29 February 1864 Kolín, Kingdom of Bohemia, Austrian Empire
Died	17 March 1942 (aged 78) Prague, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
Resting place	Brandýs nad Labem
Occupation	Writer, journalist
Nationality	Czech

Josef Svatopluk Machar ([ˈjosɛf ˈsvatopluk ˈmaxar]; 1864 – 1942) was a Czech poet and essayist. A leader of the realist movement in Czech poetry and a master of colloquial Czech, Machar was active in anti-Austrian political circles in Vienna. Many of his poems were satires of political and social conditions. In the poetic cycle The Conscience of the Ages (1901–1921), of which Golgotha was the initial volume, he contrasted antique with Christian civilization, favoring the former. His Magdalena (1894, translated into English by Leo Wiener, 1916), a satirical novel in verse, concerns the treatment of women. Both Machar's use of colloquial diction and his brilliantly expressed skepticism greatly influenced Czech literature and public opinion.