František Hrubín

Who was František Hrubín?

František Hrubín, was a Czech poet and writer. He was a lifetime member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.

Frantisek Hrubín was born into the family of a builder at Prague. His family lived in Lešany near Prague during World War I, and Hrubín visited his home village throughout his life. He studied at a gymnasium in Prague. In 1932 he began studying law and philosophy at Charles University, but he did not graduate. In 1934 he started working as a librarian. He got married in 1939 and had a daughter and a son. His children were a great impulse for writing children's poetry.

After World War II he worked briefly at the Ministry of Propaganda and became a freelance writer in 1946. He co-founded a legendary Czech children's magazine, Mateřídouška. He often stayed in Chlum u Třeboně in South Bohemia, whose countryside was an important source of inspiration for his work. In 1956 at the II. Czechoslovak Writers' Assembly he criticised the communist regime formed after February 1948. In 1960 he became the chairman of the Poetry Friends Club. He died in České Budějovice and is buried at the Vyšehrad cemetery.