Ivan Klíma

2025-10-13T03:28:32Z

142.180.193.62: New York Times obituary shows September 9th as birth date.

{{Short description|Czech novelist and playwright (1931–2025)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2025}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Ivan Klíma
| image = Ivan Klíma 2015.JPG
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption = Klíma in 2015
| pseudonym =
| birth_name = Ivan Kauders
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1931|09|09|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Prague]], Czechoslovakia
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2025|10|04|1931|09|14|df=y}}
| death_place = Prague, Czech Republic
| resting_place =
| occupation = Writer, playwright, professor at [[University of Michigan]]
| alma_mater = [[Charles University in Prague]]
| spouse = {{Marriage|Helena Mala|1958}}
| children = 2
| relatives = [[Vilém Klíma]] (father)
| awards =
| signature = Ivan Klíma - podpis.png
| signature_alt =
| website = {{URL|http://www.ivanklima.cz/}}
| portaldisp =
| influences =
| influenced =
}}

'''Ivan Klíma''' (born '''Ivan Kauders''', 9 September 1931 – 4 October 2025) was a Czech novelist and playwright. He received the [[Magnesia Litera]] award and the [[Franz Kafka Prize]], among other honours.<ref name=delbos>[http://www.praguepost.com/night-and-day/books/12329-interview-ivan-klima.html Interview: Ivan Klíma], Stephan Delbos, ''The Prague Post'', 29 February 2012</ref>

==Early life and career==
Klíma was born Ivan Kauders in Prague on 9 September 1931.<ref name = NYT>{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/04/world/europe/ivan-klima-dead.html|title = Ivan Klima, Czech Novelist Who Chafed Under Totalitarian Regimes, Dies at 94|last1 = Binder|first1 = David|last2 = Bilefsky|first2 = Dan|date = 4 October 2025|accessdate = 4 October 2025|newspaper = [[The New York Times]]|url-access = limited}}</ref> His early childhood in Prague was happy and uneventful, but this all changed with the [[Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)|German invasion of Czechoslovakia]] in 1938, after the [[Munich Agreement]].<ref name = NYT/> He only learned of his Jewish heritage once the invasion had occurred.<ref>{{cite web |last=Jaggi |first=Maya |date=1 May 2004 |title=Building bridges |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/may/01/featuresreviews.guardianreview12 |website=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=8 October 2025}}</ref>

In November 1941, first his father [[Vilém Klíma]] and then, in December, he and his mother and brother were ordered to leave for the concentration camp at [[Theriesenstadt]] ([[Terezín]]), where he was to remain until its [[End of World War II in Europe|liberation by the Red Army in May 1945]].<ref name = "Guardian>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/aug/02/ivan-klima-interview|title=The Interview:Ivan Klima|publisher=[[The Observer]]|author=Tim Dowling|date=2 August 2009|access-date=10 January 2025}}</ref><ref name="Academia">{{cite web|url=http://www.academia.cz/autori/ivan-klima.html|title=Ivan Klíma|publisher=Academia|language=cs|access-date=27 February 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803003307/http://www.academia.cz/autori/ivan-klima.html|archive-date=3 August 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> He and both his parents survived incarceration, even though Terezín, a holding camp for Jews from central and southern Europe, was regularly cleared of its overcrowded population by transports to "the East," that is, to death camps such as [[Auschwitz]]. The family adopted the less German-sounding surname of Klíma after the war.<ref name = NYT/>

Klíma wrote graphically about this period in articles in the British literary magazine ''[[Granta]]'', particularly ''A Childhood in Terezin''.<ref name=granta>Ivan Klíma. ''A Childhood in Terezin''. ''Granta'' 44, 1993, pp 191–208</ref> He wrote that "anyone who has been through a concentration camp as a child, who has been completely dependent on an external power which can at any moment come in and beat or kill him and everyone around him, probably moves through life at least a bit differently from people who have been spared such an education. That life can be snapped like a piece of string - that was my daily lesson as a child."<ref name ="Guardian"/>

With the [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic|post-war rise of the Czech Communist regime]] and proxy [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] control, Klima became a member of the [[Communist Party of Czechoslovakia]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://zpravy.idnes.cz/spisovatel-ivan-klima-na-silene-stoleti-pripraven-nebyl-ted-uz-je-p9j-/kavarna.asp?c=A090703_202310_kavarna_bos|title=Spisovatel Ivan Klíma na šílené století připraven nebyl. Teď už je|last=Dudek|first=Petr|date=8 July 2009|work=[[iDNES.cz]]|publisher=[[Mafra (company)|Mafra]]|language=cs|access-date=27 February 2010}}</ref> Eventually, his childhood hopes for the triumph of good over evil became an adult awareness that it was often "not the forces of good and evil that do battle with each other, but merely two different evils, in competition for the control of the world".<ref name=granta/> The show trials and murders of those who opposed the new regime began, and Klíma's father was again imprisoned, this time by fellow countrymen.

During the [[Prague Spring]] of 1968, Klíma was a leading dissident. At the time of the [[Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia|Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia]] in August 1968, Klíma was in London, on his way to a teaching engagement in [[Michigan]]. However, he returned to Prague in March 1970. Although he was then deprived of his passport and forced to work in menial jobs, he remained a member of the literary '[[Prague underground (culture)|underground]]', smuggling books and getting involved in [[samizdat]]. After the [[Velvet Revolution|overthrow of communism in 1989]], Klíma became a prominent supporter of [[Václav Havel]].<ref name ="Guardian" />

==Personal life and death==
In 1958, Klíma married psychologist Helena Mala, with whom he had two children.<ref name = NYT/>

Klíma died at his residence in Prague, on the morning of 4 October 2025, at the age of 94.<ref name = NYT/><ref>{{Cite web |title=Zemřel spisovatel, dramatik a bývalý disident Ivan Klíma |url=https://ct24.ceskatelevize.cz/clanek/domaci/zemrel-spisovatel-dramatik-a-byvaly-disident-ivan-klima-365717 |access-date=4 October 2025 |website=[[ČT24]]|language=cs|agency=[[Czech News Agency]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=4 October 2025 |title=Czech author and anti-communist dissident Ivan Klíma dies at 94 |url=https://apnews.com/article/czech-klima-obit-46c7335540634b1494ec23282a0a8092 |access-date=4 October 2025 |website=AP News |language=en}}</ref>

==Writing==
Klíma was awarded the [[Franz Kafka Prize]] in 2002. His two-volume memoir ''Moje šílené století'' (''My Crazy Century'') won the Magnesia Litera, a Czech literary prize, in the non-fiction category in 2010. ''My Crazy Century'' was published in English in 2013 by Grove Press.<ref>{{Cite book|isbn=978-0802121707|title=My Crazy Century: A Memoir|last1=Klíma|first1=Ivan|date=14 October 2013|publisher=Grove Press }}</ref>

==Bibliography==
{{Div col}}
* ''Bezvadný den'' (1960; English: ''A Wonderful Day'')<ref name="bradbrook">{{cite book |last=Bradbrook |first=Bohuslava |date=2006 |title=Handbook of Czech Prose Writings, 1940-2005 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xScVEQAAQBAJ |location= |publisher=Liverpool University Press |page=46 |isbn=1836241720 |access-date=8 October 2025}}</ref>
* ''Hodina ticha'' (1963; English: ''A Peaceful Hour'')<ref name="bradbrook"/>
* ''Milenci na jednu noc'' (1964)<ref>{{cite book |last=Segel |first=Harold |date= |title=The Columbia guide to the literatures of Eastern Europe since 1945 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L0o17jH4reYC |location=New York |publisher=Columbia University Press |page=285 |isbn=0231114044 |access-date=8 October 2025}}</ref>
* ''Loď, jménem Naděje'' (1969)<ref>{{cite book |last=Klíma |first=Ivan |date=1969 |title=Loď, jménem Naděje |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=45JLAAAAMAAJ&q=1969 |location= |publisher=Čs. spis. |isbn=9788020019738 |access-date=8 October 2025}}</ref>
* ''A Ship Named Hope: Two Novels'' (1970)<ref>{{cite book |last=Klíma |first=Ivan |date=1970 |title=A Ship Named Hope: Two Novels |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ygA6AAAAMAAJ |location= |publisher=Gollancz |isbn=0575004479 |access-date=8 October 2025}}</ref>
* ''Milostné léto'' (1972; English: ''A Summer Affair'' (1987))<ref>{{cite book |last=Klíma |first=Ivan |date=1987 |title=A Summer Affair |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7jIOqR-R-IkC&q=Milostn%C3%A9%20l%C3%A9to%20Ivan%20Klima |location= |publisher=Penguin |isbn=0140117121 |access-date=8 October 2025}}</ref>
* ''Ma veselá jitra'' (1979; English: ''My Merry Mornings: Stories from Prague'' (1985))<ref>{{cite book |last=Klíma |first=Ivan |date=1979 |title=
Má veselá jitra |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0mxhAAAAMAAJ&q=1979 |location= |publisher=Sixty-Eight Publishers |isbn=0887810764 |access-date=8 October 2025}}</ref>
* ''Moje první lásky'' (1985; English: ''My First Loves'' (1986))<ref>{{cite book |last=Klíma |first=Ivan |date=1985 |title=Moje první lásky |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2GJhAAAAMAAJ |location= |publisher=Mladá fronta |isbn=0887811450 |access-date=8 October 2025}}</ref>
* ''Láska a smetí'' (1986; English: ''[[Love and Garbage]]'' (1990))<ref>{{cite book |last=Klíma |first=Ivan |date=1991 |title=Love and Garbage |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jaabI3-jxTMC&q=1986 |location= |publisher=Penguin |isbn=0140139478 |access-date=8 October 2025}}</ref>
* ''Soudce z milosti'' (1986; English: ''Judge on Trial'' (1991))<ref>{{cite book |last=Klíma |first=Ivan |date=1991 |title=Judge on Trial |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VkWAAAAAIAAJ |location= |publisher=Chatto & Windus |isbn=9780701133498 |access-date=8 October 2025}}</ref>
* ''Už se blíží meče: Eseje, Fejetony, Rozhovory'' (1990)<ref>{{cite book |last=Klíma |first=Ivan |date=1990 |title=Už se blíží meče |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HY8YAQAAIAAJ&q=U%C5%BE%20se%20bl%C3%AD%C5%BE%C3%AD%20me%C4%8De:%20Eseje,%20Fejetony,%20Rozhovory |location= |publisher=Novinář |isbn=8070773243 |access-date=8 October 2025}}</ref>
* ''Ministr a anděl'' (1990)<ref>{{cite book |last=Klíma |first=Ivan |date=1990 |title=
Ministr a anděl |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=szcHAQAAIAAJ&q=Ministr%20a%20and%C4%9Bl |location= |publisher=Dilia 2N |isbn=9788020300706 |access-date=8 October 2025}}</ref>
* ''Rozhovor v Praze'' (1990)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Krolop |first1=Kurt |last2=Zimmermann |first2=Hans Dieter |date=1994 |title=
Kafka und Prag |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y5YDDgAAQBAJ |location=Praha |publisher=De Gruyter |page=247 |isbn=3110902559 |access-date=8 October 2025}}</ref>
* ''Moje zlatá řemesla'' (1990; English: ''My Golden Trades'')<ref name="bradbrook"/>
* ''Hry: Hra o dvou dějstvích'' (1991)<ref>{{cite book |last=Klíma |first=Ivan |date=1991 |title=Hry: Hra o dvou dějstvích |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jJ1JNAEACAAJ |location= |publisher=DILIA |isbn=8020301003 |access-date=8 October 2025}}</ref>
* ''Ostrov mrtvých králů'' (1992)<ref>{{cite book |last=Klíma |first=Ivan |date=1992 |title=Ostrov mrtvých králů |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9GRhAAAAMAAJ&q=Ostrov%20mrtv%C3%BDch%20kr%C3%A1l%C5%AF |location= |publisher=Rozmluvy |isbn=8085336286 |access-date=8 October 2025}}</ref>
* ''Čekání na tmu, čekání na světlo'' (1993; English: ''Waiting for the Dark, Waiting for the Light'')<ref name="bradbrook"/>
* ''The Spirit of Prague and Other Essays'' (1994)<ref>{{cite book |last=Klíma |first=Ivan |date=1994 |title=The Spirit of Prague and Other Essays |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tvCAAAAAIAAJ&q=1994 |location=Great Britain |publisher=Granta Books |page=4 |isbn=0964561123 |access-date=8 October 2025}}</ref>
* ''Milostné rozhovory'' (1995)<ref>{{cite book |last=Klíma |first=Ivan |date=1995 |title=Milostné rozhovory |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cVxgAAAAMAAJ |location= |publisher=Hynek |isbn=8085906090 |access-date=8 October 2025}}</ref>
* ''Jak daleko je slunce'' (1995)<ref>{{cite book |last=Klíma |first=Ivan |date=1995 |title=
Jak daleko je slunce |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EYrnAAAAMAAJ&q=Jak%20daleko%20je%20slunce |location= |publisher=Hynek |isbn=8085906155 |access-date=8 October 2025}}</ref>
* ''Poslední stupeň důvěrnosti'' (1996; English: ''Ultimate Intimacy'')<ref name="bradbrook"/>
* ''Kruh nepřátel českého jazyka: Fejetony'' (1998)<ref>{{cite book |last=Klíma |first=Ivan |date=1998 |title=Kruh nepřátel českého jazyka |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XYrnAAAAMAAJ&q=Kruh%20nep%C5%99%C3%A1tel%20%C4%8Desk%C3%A9ho%20jazyka:%20Fejetony |location= |publisher=Hynek |isbn=8086202208 |access-date=8 October 2025}}</ref>
* ''O chlapci, který se nestal číslem'' (1998)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Klíma |first1=Ivan |last2=Fritta |first2=Bedřich |date=1998 |title=O chlapci, který se nestal číslem |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s8YhAAAACAAJ |location= |publisher=Židovské muzeum |isbn=8085608200 |access-date=8 October 2025}}</ref>
* ''Fictions and Histories'' (1998)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Klíma |first1=Ivan|last2=Miłosz |first2=Czesław |last3=Moracova |first3=Martina |last4=Heim |first4=Michael Henry
|date=1998 |title= Fictions and Histories |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1nOAAAAAIAAJ&q=originally |location= |publisher=Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities |isbn= |access-date=8 October 2025}}</ref>
* ''Lovers for a Day: New and Collected Stories on Love'' (1999)<ref>{{cite book |last=Klíma |first=Ivan |date=1999 |title=Lovers for a Day |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5S-va8cO0AcC |location= |publisher=Grove Press |isbn=0802137474 |access-date=8 October 2025}}</ref>
* ''Ani svatí, ani andělé'' (1999; English: ''No Saints or Angels'')<ref name="bradbrook"/>
* ''Between Security and Insecurity'' (1999)<ref>{{cite book |last=Klíma |first=Ivan |date=1999 |title=Between Security and Insecurity |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-GV5QgAACAAJ |location= |publisher=Thames & Hudson |isbn=0500281580 |access-date=8 October 2025}}</ref>
* ''Velký věk chce mít též velké mordy: život a dílo Karla Čapka'' (2001; English: ''A Great Age Needs Great Murders: Life and Works of Karel Čapek'')<ref>{{cite book |last=Klíma |first=Ivan |date=2001 |title=Velký věk chce mít též velké mordy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qIYYAQAAIAAJ&q=Velk%C3%BD%20v%C4%9Bk%20chce%20m%C3%ADt%20t%C3%A9%C5%BE%20velk%C3%A9%20mordy |location= |publisher=Academia |isbn=8020009361 |access-date=8 October 2025}}</ref>
* ''Karel Čapek: Life and Work'' (English translation of above; 2002)<ref>{{cite book |last=Klíma |first=Ivan |date=2002 |title=Karel Čapek: Life and Work |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l4i09o0QkCgC&q=Karel+%C4%8Capek:+Life+and+Work |location= |publisher=Catbird Press |isbn=0945774532 |access-date=8 October 2025}}</ref>
* ''Premiér a anděl'' (2003)<ref>{{cite book |last=Klíma |first=Ivan |date=2003 |title=Premiér a anděl |url=https://muj-antikvariat.cz/kniha/premier-a-andel-klima-ivan-2003 |location= |publisher=Academia |isbn=9788020011633 |access-date=8 October 2025}}</ref>
* ''Moje nebezpečné výlety'' (2004; English: ''My Golden Trips'')<ref name="bradbrook"/>
* ''Moje šílené století'' (2009; English: ''My Crazy Century'' (2013))<ref>{{cite book |last=Klíma |first=Ivan |date=2009 |title=Moje šílené století |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tdk5AQAAIAAJ |location= |publisher=Academia |isbn=9788020016973 |access-date=8 October 2025}}</ref>
{{Div col end}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* {{IMDb name| 0459484}}
* [https://www.lidovky.cz/kultura/spisovatel-ivan-klima-prevzal-cenu-karla-capka-tomu-i-podekoval.A100107_181822_ln_kultura_ter Spisovatel Ivan Klíma převzal Cenu Karla Čapka, tomu i poděkoval (Lidové noviny)] {{in lang|cs}}
* [https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/18/books/ivan-klimas-my-crazy-century-spans-decades-of-czech-life.html "Optimism Outlasted a Lifetime of Horrors - Ivan Klima's 'My Crazy Century' Spans Decades of Czech Life"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', 17 November 2013,
* [[Maya Jaggi]]: [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/may/01/featuresreviews.guardianreview12 " Building bridges"], ''[[The Guardian]]'', 1 May 2004,
* [http://www.radio.cz/en/section/books/ivan-klima-a-sceptic-in-the-era-of-entertainment-culture "Ivan Klíma: a sceptic in the era of entertainment culture"], [[Czech Radio]], 8. 11. 2009,

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Klima, Ivan}}
[[Category:1931 births]]
[[Category:2025 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Czech dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:20th-century Czech Jews]]
[[Category:20th-century Czech novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century Czech Jews]]
[[Category:Czech male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Czech male novelists]]
[[Category:Jewish novelists]]
[[Category:Recipients of Medal of Merit (Czech Republic)]]
[[Category:Theresienstadt Ghetto survivors]]
[[Category:University of Michigan faculty]]
[[Category:Writers from Prague]]

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Ivan Klíma