„Jen napiš opravdu hodně, vždyť víš, jak se na to těším.“
„Just write a lot, you know how I look forward it.“

A Report on Editions of Karel Havlíček’s Correspondence

Summary/Abstract: Karel Havlíček (1821-1856) still remains the symbol of Czech journalism and of publicopinion. He used to exchange letters with his parents, with friends from his times asa student, later on as the supervisor and editor of Pražské noviny, Národní noviny andSlovan as well as with the authorities and with his readers. The private correspondencewas considered part of his literary legacy quite early after his death. Thus 1200 pieces ofhis correspondence were preserved. An extensive convolute of Havlíček´s correspondencewas issued by Ladislav Quis in 1903. Now the complete correspondence will be publishedfor the very first time. This project, supported by Grantová agentura České republiky(2012-2015), brought about several publications, including a monography written by theauthor of this report and in particular the edition of the first volume of the letters (therewere 134 letters) from 1831-1842. It included the letters to his parents, which Havlíčekwrote in German. The edition makes them accessible in their original version, as well asin their modern translation into Czech language, accompanied by an extended foot-noteapparatus and an image gallery. The correspondence opens a lot of great possibilities fordiverse research not only on the development of the Czech language from the thirtiesof the nineteenth century, but also of German at that time, as well as on the usage andthe role of both languages in written communication. Along with the edition of the correspondenceof Karel Havlíček a corpus of the correspondence of Karel Havlíček (aliasKh-dopisy/ Kh-letters) was set up in Český národní korpus (Czech National Corpus).The whole project will include six volumes of the correspondence.

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