Father (Antonín Zeman aka Antal Stašek) and Son (Kamil Zeman aka Ivan Olbracht) statuary - Semily, Czech Republic - Statues of Historic Figures on Waymarking.com

The bronze statuary located in front of the entrance to the Palacky Park in Semily is named as "Father and Son" and it was casted in 1960 by the academic sculptor Josef Malejovský. It depicts life-size staues of two Czech writers, i.e. Antal Stašek and Ivan Olbracht sitting on the bench and discussing. Antal Stašek (born as Antonín Zeman) was father of Ivan Olbracht (born as Kamil Stašek). Ivan Olbracht was born in Semily.

Antal Stašek was born in a nearby village Stanové in 1843 and moved to Semily in 1878. At first he focused mainly on writing poems but he had the greatest success with his book about the Podkrkonoší spiritualists called “Dreamers Wandering Our Mountains”. Another novel by him, called “Matouš, the Cobbler, and His Friends“ met with huge success, too. At the turn of the 20th century Stašek’s popularity culminated and after the Rieger trail was opened in 1909, numerous groups of tourists followed the route from Železný Brod and then waited in front of his home hoping to see the famous novelist. Usually they were lucky, Stašek waved at them from a window and sometimes he even walked out of the house. Working as the director of the Town Insurance Company, he resigned his post following the dramatic development of its financial situation and moved to Prague where he died in 1931. A memorial was built for Antal Stašek at the Semily columbarium and his funeral urn was moved here. However, in 1933 the urn was stolen and despite the advertised reward for finding the offender the urn has never been found.

Stašek’s son Kamil followed his father’s footsteps, becoming a writer and journalist. He chose a pseudonym of Ivan Olbracht. From 1909 till 1916 he worked as an editor of the Delnické listy newspaper in Vienna. At that time he published his first two major works “Mean Loners“ and "The Darkest Gaol“. Following the establishment of the communist party, Olbracht became a dedicated follower and tried to capture the tumultuous social movement of the post-war years in his novel “Anna the Proletarian”. In 1929, he, together with other writers, stood against the policy implemented in the party by Gottwald and left the Communist Party of the former Czechoslovakia. In the mid 1930s he turned his attention to the problems of the easternmost part of the country. He wrote “Mountains and Centuries”, “Golet in the Valley”, and his best work “Nikolai Shuhai, the Highwayman“ at the Carpathian Ruthenia. Ivan Olbracht died in Prague in 1952.

Biography is cited from (visit link)

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