František Čelakovský

František Ladislav Čelakovský (Strakonice, 1799 – Prague, 1852) was a Czech poet, translator, linguist and literary critic, and one of the key figures of the Czech National Revival within the Austrian Empire. He wrote in Czech at a time when the language was still working to gain a firm place in public life.

The son of a carpenter, he studied in České Budějovice and in Prague but never earned a university degree; he preferred to teach himself languages and literature. He supported himself as a private tutor and translator, and from 1833 he edited the Prague newspaper Pražské noviny. A critical remark about the Russian tsar cost him that post in 1835, and the following years were marked by financial hardship. Later he won professorships in Slavic literature in Wrocław and Prague.

His work combined original poetry with the recovery of folk tradition. He gathered folk songs from Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia and translated Russian, Serbian and Lithuanian songs. His Echoes of Russian Songs (1829) is a collection of epic poems drawn from Russian folklore, while Echoes of Bohemian Songs (1839) uses simpler, more lyrical and sometimes satirical language. He also translated Goethe, Walter Scott and Herder.

His legacy lies in showing that folk material could serve as the basis for serious Czech literature. He died in Prague in 1852.