Petr Král (4 September 1941 – 17 June 2020) was a Czech writer, initially influenced by surrealism.
Král was born in Prague. Having graduated from FAMU, he worked as an editor in the Orbis publishing house, where he focused on a line of books about film and filmmakers. In 1968, he immigrated to France where he worked in a gallery, a photo shop, as a teacher, interpreter, translator, screenplay author, reviewer and so on. In 1984 he lived in Québec. From 1990 to 1991 he was a cultural counsellor at the Czech embassy in Paris. He translated from and into French (mainly modern poetry). He edited several anthologies. Since April 2006, he resided in Prague.
List of works Petr Král started writing under the influence of surrealism, but from the 1970s, his books revealed that he felt a lack of fulfilment from the surrealist method. He wrote about eternal longing which is being nourished by itself, and perhaps leads to consuming the person who yearns. Král's emblematic words can be: "We don't die, it's much worse: we vanish. In other words, we never were. There is no reality."
Vlasta Burian (with A. Král), 1969 Prázdno světa, 1986 Svědek stmívání, 1987 Éra živých, 1989 P. S. čili Cesty do ráje, 1990 Právo na šedivou, 1991 Pocit předsálí v aixské kavárně, 1991 Med zatáček čili Dovětek k dějinám, 1992 Voskovec a Werich čili Hvězdy klobouky, 1993 Tyršovské přeháňky, 1994 Fotografie v surrealismu, 1994 Arsenál, 1994 Soukromý život, 1996 Pařížské sešity, 1996 Mramor se jí studený (anthology of the Belgian Surrealist movement, as editor), 1996 Staronový kontinent, 1997 Chiméry a exil, 1998 Groteska čili Morálka šlehačkového dortu, 1998 Aimer Venise (Loving Venice), 1999 Praha, 2000 Pro anděla, 2000 Základní pojmy, 2002 Anthologie de la poésie tchèque contemporaine, 2002 (as editor, published in France by Gallimard) Bar Příroda čili Budoucnost 5 km, 2004 Masiv a trhliny, 2004 Přesuny, 2005 Arco a jiné prózy, 2005 Hm čili Míra omylu, 2006 Úniky a návraty (interview with Petr Král by Radim Kopáč), 2006 Notions de base, 2005 (Working Knowledge) Enquête sur des lieux, 2007 (In Search of the Essence of Place) Hum ou Marge d'erreur, 2007
English translations Working Knowledge, translated by Frank Wynne, Pushkin Press, 2008 Loving Venice, translated by Christopher Moncrieff, Pushkin Press, 2011 In Search of the Essence of Place, translated by Christopher Moncrieff, Pushkin Press, 2012
References
External links
Petr Král in the internet Dictionary of Czech Literature, in Czech Petr Král: Bio, excerpts, interviews and articles in the archives of the Prague Writers' Festival Poems and translations, in Czech