Lot 136

Maxim Boryslawski (1897 - 1967) A DIARY

Maxim Boryslawski was a Czech architect and journalist, a long-time editor of the Czech and Svobodné Slovo newspapers in the 1940s to 1960s. For a long time he was the head of the sports department. He was also the author of the charming literary work Czech Lane (1957), in which he describes the beginnings of football in Bohemia through literary form and historical facts. He kept a personal diary between 1925 and 1960. The diary is mainly exhibited through aphoristic passages with primary themes of irony, playfulness and impressive perceptiveness, which are complemented, and at the same time dominate the diary, by colour illustrations in the style of expressionism, cubism and art deco. The diary is not only a plane of personal testimony (the author himself writes in the preface: 'as far as my character is concerned, I am not only light-hearted but also melancholic. That says it all."), but also an impressive insight into the different stages of the last century and their artistic reflection.