Editing Bohumil Hrabal (section)

==Ban from publication and later career==
[[File:Bohumil Hrabal 1985 český spisovatel foto Hana Hamplová.jpg|thumb|right|Bohumil Hrabal in 1985]]
After the [[Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia]] in August 1968, Hrabal was banned from publishing.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BxIzBwAAQBAJ&q=banned&pg=PA162 |title = Czech New Wave Filmmakers in Interviews|isbn = 9780786417209|last1 = Buchar|first1 = Robert|date = 24 October 2003| publisher=McFarland }}</ref> In 1970, two of his books – ''Domácí úkoly'' and ''Poupata'' – were banned, after they had been printed and bound but before they were distributed. In the following years, he published several of his best known works in [[samizdat]] editions (including ''The Little Town Where Time Stood Still'' ({{langx|cs|Městečko, kde se zastavil čas}}) and ''I Served the King of England'' ({{langx|cs|Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále}}).

In 1975, Hrabal gave an interview to the publication ''Tvorba'' in which he made self-critical comments, which enabled some of his work to appear in print, albeit typically in heavily edited form.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Hlučná samota : sto let Bohumila Hrabala : 1914-2014|others=Kotyk, Petr, 1963-, Kotyková, Světlana, 1963-, Pavlíček, Tomáš, 1972-|isbn=9788020432797|edition=Vydání první|location=Praha|oclc=885931402|last1 = Kotyk|first1 = Petr|last2 = Kotyková|first2 = Světlana|last3 = Pavlíček|first3 = Tomáš|year = 2014}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Spisovatel Bohumil Hrabal|last=Mazal|first=Tomáš|date=2004|publisher=Torst|isbn=8072152262|edition=Vyd. 1|location=Praha|oclc=56880551}}</ref> Hrabal's interlocutors were anonymous in the journal, but it was later discovered that the published interview was at least a third version of the text,<ref name=":1" /> and that the more explicitly ideological statements were inserted by editors Karel Sýs and Jaromír Pelc according to contemporary party doctrine.<ref name=":1" /> One such passage reads "...as a Czech writer I am connected to the Czech people, with its Socialist past and future".<ref name=":0" />

Some young dissidents were incensed by Hrabal's actions; poet [[Ivan Martin Jirous|Ivan "Magor" Jirous]] organised an event on [[Kampa Island]] at which his books were [[Book burning|burned]],<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.respekt.cz/tydenik/2014/13/normalizacni-partie-bohumila-hrabala|title=Bohumil Hrabal: V osidlech cenzury|last=Nezbeda|first=Ondřej|work=Týdeník Respekt|access-date=10 May 2018}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> and the singer [[Karel Kryl]] called him a "whore".<ref>"History of the literary cultures of East-Central Europe: junctures and disjunctures in the 19th and 20th century" By Marcel Cornis-Pope, John Neubauer (John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2007)</ref> However, his defenders point out that an edited version of a key text, ''Handbook for the Apprentice Palaverer'' ({{langx|cs|Rukovět̕ pábitelského učně}}), was published alongside the interview, which ended the ban on publication and permitted his work once again to reach the broader Czechoslovak public.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/porady/10150778447-historie-cs/214452801400007-hrabalovo-stoleti/video/|title=Hrabalovo století|date=10 May 2018|website=Česká televize}}</ref> [[Ludvík Vaculík]], who had published his work in samizdat and would later continue to do so,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ludvikvaculik.cz/index.php?pid=2&sid=17|title=Stránky spisovatele Ludvíka Vaculíka|website=ludvikvaculik.cz|others=Rew, Oniin|access-date=10 May 2018}}</ref> defended him, saying that the interview demonstrated that Hrabal was a writer of such standing that he could not be suppressed and the regime had had to acknowledge him.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" /> Additionally, some of his writings continued to be printed only in samizdat and as underground editions abroad,<ref name=":0" /> including ''[[Too Loud a Solitude]]'' ({{langx|cs|Přílíš hlučná samota}}) which circulated in a number of samizdat editions until it was finally published officially in 1989. Hrabal avoided political engagement, and he was not a signatory of the [[Charter 77]] civic initiative against the communist regime in 1977.

Hrabal's two best-known novels are ''Closely Observed Trains'' ({{langx|cs|Ostře sledované vlaky}}) (1965) and ''[[I Served the King of England]]'' (1971), both of which were made into movies by the Czech director [[Jiří Menzel]] (in 1966 and 2006, respectively). Hrabal worked closely with Menzel on the script for ''[[Closely Watched Trains]]'' which won the [[Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film]] in 1968. The two men became close friends and subsequently collaborated on other film projects, including the long-banned 1969 film ''[[Larks on a String]]''.

Hrabal was a noted raconteur,<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Cesty s Bohumilem Hrabalem|last=Mazal|first=Tomáš|date=2011|publisher=Academia|isbn=9788020019240|edition=Vyd. 1|location=Praha|oclc=750943943}}</ref><ref name=":3" /> and much of his story-telling took place in a number of pubs including, most famously, U zlatého tygra (At the Golden Tiger) on Husova Street in Prague.<ref name=":2" /> He met the Czech President [[Václav Havel]], the American President [[Bill Clinton]] and the US ambassador to the UN [[Madeleine Albright]] at U zlatého tygra on 11 January 1994.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rferl.org/a/hrabal-writer-czech/25311346.html|title=100 Years Of Bohumil Hrabal|website=RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty|date=27 March 2014 |language=en|access-date=10 May 2018}}</ref><ref name=":1" />