Ota Pavel

1930–1973. A Czech prose writer who wrote autobiographical short stories that primarily highlight his childhood experiences.

The third son of the Jewish peddler Leo Popper, he was born in Prague. During the Second World War, his father and his two older brothers, Jirka and Hugo, were imprisoned in concentration camps, whilst he remained throughout the Occupation with his Christian mother, Hermina, in the village of Bustehrad. At the end of the war, his father and brothers returned alive but ‘scarred’ by their time in the camps.

After the war, Ota graduated from the Workers’ School and for a time worked in the Kládno coal mines whilst also coaching the Sparta ‘Cik’ ice hockey team.

From 1949 to 1956, he worked as a sports editor for Czechoslovak state radio and subsequently for the magazines Stadion and Czechoslovak Soldier. His first short stories, influenced mainly by the sporting world, were published in these magazines.

In his role as an editor, he had the opportunity to travel abroad regularly to cover various sporting events and missions.

During the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria (1964), he exhibited symptoms of manic depression and attempted to set fire to a farmhouse on the outskirts of Innsbruck. Due to his illness, he retired on disability in 1966. He spent the last years of his life in various psychiatric clinics, dying prematurely in 1974 at the age of just 43.

In the Czech Republic, he is now regarded as one of the greatest post-war short story writers, and his works have been translated into many foreign languages.

His collections ‘How I Met the Fish’ and ‘The Death of the Beautiful Gazelles’ have seen the most reprints, with the latter having been adapted for the cinema.