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karel jaromír erben
Karel Jaromír Erben was born on November 7, 1811, in Miletín. After attending gymnasium in Hradec Králové, he studied history and law
at university in Prague and later was a member of the Bohemian Society of Sciences and the Academy of Sciences in Vienna, and served as
archivist for the National Museum and later for the City of Prague. Having befriended Karel Hynek Mácha, Erben
began to record his dreams, but eventually he became more fascinated with the mysteries contained in folklore and the original myth – as
it was thought – hidden in its fragmentary nature. Influenced by the Brothers Grimm and the burgeoning study in Europe of folk literature,
he thus began to collect (as well as translate those not originally in Czech) more than 2,200 Slavic fairy tales, folk songs, and legends,
drawing on these to compile, in verse form, his most famous book, A Bouquet of Folktales (Kytice z pověstí národních),
first published in 1853. He produced as well a collection of Czech fairy tales (published posthumously) and a five-volume compendium of
Czech folk songs and nursery rhymes. And in 1869 he published his seminal Selected Folktales and Legends from Other Slavic Branches.
Erben died in Prague on November 21, 1870.
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published by TSP:
A Bouquet
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