Václav Havel's Life Biography
1979–83
While in custody Havel receives an offer of a one-year stay in New York, in other words an offer to emigrate. He refuses as long as other political prisoners are not also released, therefore losing the chance to get out. In prison he writes letters to his wife that become a series of philosophical essays addressing ethics, responsibility and relationship with God. Friends piece together the collection Letters to Olga (Dopisy Olze), which comes to be regarded as a key expression of Havel's philosophy and is soon translated into a number of world languages.
říjen 1979
Trial of members of the Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Prosecuted. VH is sentenced to four and a half years without parole for subversion. Similar verdicts are handed down to VONS activists Petr Uhl, Jiří Dienstbier, Otta Bednářová, Václav Benda, Dana Němcová and others.
1980 a dál
International support for VH grows, especially in artistic circles. Theatres and television channels show a stage reconstruction of his trial. In the summer of 1982, A Night for Václav Havel is put on at the Avignon Theatre festival, the company at Vienna’s Burgtheatre organises a petition in his support and several Western politicians speak up for him. He receives honorary doctorates from the University of Toronto and from the University of Toulouse-Le Mirail.
1983
Suspension of prison sentence for health reasons. He fights for his life due to a severe case of pneumonia. In part thanks to broad international solidarity, he is released for home treatment.
1984
He writes the play Largo Desolato, the story of a dissident, intellectual and moral leader of the nation who fights for his identity with his last drops of strength.
1984–1989
Collections of Havel's essays On Human Identity and In all Directions, edited by Vilém Prečan, are published by Czech exiles. VH gives a number of interviews to prestigious Western newspapers and magazines. He speaks out in defence of the unjustly prosecuted and takes care of their financial support; he continues writing plays and publishing the samizdat Dispatch Editions; he is a member of the editorial board of Lidové noviny and co-founds the magazine O divadle (On Theatre). Though monitored, detained and harassed at home, abroad he is increasingly regarded as an unofficial authority within the Czech dissent.
16. srpna 1984
A house search takes place at his cottage in Hrádeček, during which the police confiscate a great number of books, magazines, audio tapes, photos, personal letters and other documents. VH is also subjected to harassment from the police in subsequent years.
1985
VH writes the play Temptation, an ironic variation on the Faust myth given a modern setting. The focus here too is a deal with the devil and a struggle with his own conscience, which the protagonist in the end loses.
