Prague, Sept 8 (CTK) – Former Czech president Vaclav Havel (1936-2011) left over lots of diary-like notes, often fragmentary and scrappy, which Michael Zantovsky, new head of the Vaclav Havel Library, wants to put together and publish, daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes Tuesday.
Zantovsky, 66, was a spokesman for Havel when he was Czechoslovak president and later, he was gradually ambassador to the United States, Israel and Britain, where his term ended this year. At the beginning of September, he became director of the Vaclav Havel Library in Prague.
MfD writes that Havel, former dissident, first post-communist president of Czechoslovakia (1989-92) and Czech president (1993-2003), wrote more than 3000 texts, 30 books and about 20 dramas. His collected works were published in eight volumes.
The Vaclav Havel Library would now like to release them electronically for the first time, Zantovsky said.
He said the library would also like to publish the diary-like notes. “Vaclav Havel wanted several times to start writing his diary, but he never persisted in this effort,” Zantovsky told MfD.
He added that to put together the fragmentary notes that are scattered at various places will take some time and they will not be published before the beginning of next year.
It is not yet clear whether they will be available electronically, or in paper form, too, Zantovsky said.
In an interview for Monday’s issue of daily Hospodarske noviny, Zantovsky said the library would like to better present Havel’s works in general.
He said Havel’s works could be sold at the Prague airport called after him, which would improve the presentation of his legacy.
Turning to the current topic of immigration to Europe, Zantovsky said “many people unrightfully believe that Havel would automatically open his arms and say let’s help them all.”
Zantovsky said the library will hold a conference on migration at the Prague Crossroads, an international spiritual centre established on Havel’s initiative, on October 30.
Zantovsky said people from the library looking for some connections between the topic and Havel’s work found a very interesting passage in a book of Havel’s interviews with Czech journalist Karel Hvizdala.
In it, Havel accentuated people’s co-responsibility for the fate of others, but at the same time said that not all can leave and that not all immigrants can be accepted, Zantovsky said.
He said Havel also mentioned the economic migrants who left former Czechoslovakia and without wanting to judge them in any way, he said it is a matter of the given country’s inhabitants to try to change the situation.
Zantovsky said this was a sort of an extension of the discussion that Havel conducted with a part of the Czechoslovak democratic opposition that left for abroad, particularly writer Milan Kundera.
Kundera believed that this part of Central Europe is culturally dead and that it should be viewed as a cemetery, Zantovsky said.
However, he said, Havel wrote to Kundera “we do not feel like at a cemetery, we want to do something here.”
Havel was unique in that he did not try to oversimplify problems, Zantovsky said.
