Addressee Bohuslav Havránek

This edition contains both professional and personal correspondence addressed to Bohuslav Havránek, a leading linguist of the 20th century. It covers the period from 1924 to 1977. The main part of the collection falls within the 1940s and 1950s, featuring letters from three prominent scholars: František Trávníček, Vladimír Šmilauer, and Bohuslav Havránek himself (ably supported by the lexicographer Alois Získal). Their work, interests, and fates intersect and, after the war, intensify within these letters. This forms an interesting and revealing part of the entire correspondence, documenting—sometimes tumultuously and combatively—the development of Czech linguistics amidst the changing political circumstances of the time. The second thematic group of the correspondence consists of letters from Havránek's students: Miloš Dokulil, Karel Horálek, František Kopečný, and Oldřich Králík. These are more individually focused, and although they capture many moments reacting to social events, they predominantly concern academic work, often in the context of consultations or requests for help with personal and professional problems. The book is published to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Prague Linguistic Circle.