Laco Novomeský

Born Dec. 27, 1904, in Budapest; died there Sept. 6, 1976. Slovak poet. People’s Artist of Czechoslovakia (1964). Member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia since 1925. Fought in the Slovak National Uprising of 1944.

Novomeský studied philosophy at the University of Bratislava (1923–25). He was highly active in social and political work and as a journalist in the press organs of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. In the 1950’s, Novomeský was subjected to illegal repression; in 1963 he was rehabilitated, whereupon he resumed his literary career.

Novomeský’s poetry collections Sunday (1927) and Open Windows (1935) are landmark works in the development of Slovak proletarian poetry. He wrote mostly sociophilosophical lyric poetry and humanistically oriented social ballads. The main theme of his collections A Saint Beyond the Outskirts (1939) and With a Forbidden Pencil (1946) is man’s place in the social struggle.

Novomeský’s works of the 1960’s, including the poetry collection From There, the narrative poem Vila Tereza, social and political commentary, and articles on literary and aesthetic problems, affirm his faith in the ideals of socialism and the socialist trend in the literature and culture of Czechoslovakia.