Bozena Nemcova

Bozena Nemcova is one of the most well-known writers in the Czech republic. However, her birth is shrouded with numerous mysteries. Some people claim that she was born in 1820 in the city of Vienna, which is supported by documents found there. However, this theory was claimed by many others including the famous historian Jaroslav Sula to be very unlikely because of documents found in the village of Ceska Skalice. These documents stated that she was studying there since 1824 which would make it impossible for her to be born in 1820. They also claim that the documents found in the city of Vienna belonged to her unknown half-sister.

Her first known piece of work is a short poem called Zenam ceskym. She was able to publish it mainly thanks to her lover Vaclav Bohumir Nebesky who was well-known in literary circles. This relationship, however, did not last long and he had to travel abroad. Later in 1843, she moved into the town of Domazlice, where she began to work on the revival of the Czech culture. She wrote everything in Czech and struggled to make this language popular again. It is safe to say that she was one of the first writers who fought for the revival of the Czech language.

Another thing worth mentioning is her book called Babicka. Babicka was written in 1855 and is famous all over the world. The value of this book is incomparable with others in this century. It gives us an insight into her childhood and the culture in this period. The main character is her grandmother which has been idealized in this book. This book is widespread all over the world and translated into over twenty languages making it one of the most popular Czech books.

After she died in 1862, there was a huge uproar and everyone wanted to honor her with a great funeral. Several memorials were built all over the Czech Republic and everyone wanted to pay their respect to her. In the twentieth century, she was recognized as a Czech icon and many industries tried to document her life with numerous films. It did not stop there. Her influence on Czech writers and culture made her into an ideal and almost every school made it compulsory to read her book Babicka. Thanks to it, it is safe to say that Bozena Nemcova will never be forgotten and will live on to be an icon for the next generation.