Antonín Sova - Pacov, Czech Republic - Dead Poets' Society Memorials on Waymarking.com

He was born in Pacov, a small town in South Bohemia, then part of the Austrian Empire, but from the age of two he grew up in nearby Lukavec. His father Jan was a teacher and choirmaster who occasionally composed. His mother died when he was 15 and his father married again (Sova never had a positive relationship with his stepmother Sabina). In Lukavec Antonín became acquainted with the sisters of Jaroslav Vrchlický. He studied at the grammar school in Pelhrimov, Tábor, and from 1881 to 1885 in Písek. He met the Písek-based poet Adolf Heyduk who helped him publish his first poems in literary magazines (he used the pen-names Ilja Georgov and for Lumír Valburga Turková). While at school he received the worst possible mark for morale because he ignored the interdict and wore a Czech tricolor tie in a park. He started studying law in Prague but he did not finish for lack of money. Jaroslav Vrchlický helped him find employment in Otto's encyclopedia editorial department which lasted for only a year. His next job was at the medical department of the Prague municipality. Eventually, from 1898 till he retired, he worked as a director of the Prague Municipal Library. He married Marie Kovaríková, who was almost 20 years younger, in 1900, and had a son Jan with her a year later. Their marriage broke up after several years, though. The poet contracted a disease that paralysed him for the last two decades of his life (probably syphilis). After the constitution of Czechoslovakia in 1918 he lived in Prague and was often visited by younger poets of various styles and political inclinations. In 1924 he moved "in his horsehair grave" to Pacov, where he died on a stormy August night in 1928. The funeral took place in Prague but his ashes were taken to a granite stone in Pacov.

The statue is located in front of Pacov chateau.

Memorial Inscription:
Antonín Sova
1864-1928
CZ: Verím-li silnou domova verou a verím-li v sebe, ceho mel bych se bát?
EN: If I believe a strong home faith and if you believe in yourself, what should I be afraid?

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Date Logged Log User Rating   05/23/2022 davidb11 visited it