The Drug of Art

Author: Ivan Blatny 

Editor: Veronika Tucerková

Translators: Justin Quinn, Matthew Sweeney, and Alex Zucker

Publisher: Ugly Duckling Presse (2007)

Lost to the world for decades, Ivan Blatný was, according to the Czech Ministry of Culture, “one of the most significant Czech poets of the twentieth century.” Blatný fled Czechoslovakia after the Communist coup in 1948, spending the rest of his life in England. This volume spans fifty years of his career and is notable for being the first major collection of Blatný’s work in English, including multi-lingual poems and some poems written mostly or entirely in English. This edition includes an introduction by Veronika Tuckerová, a foreword by Josef Skvorecky, an afterword by Antonín Petruzelka, and working notes from the translators.