Toman, Joseph

In 1915, due to the threat of bone tuberculosis, he left with his father on the Adriatic coast and visited Venice. In 1918 he graduated from the Business School in Prague. He was a bank employee, not getting along with his superiors, he left for Italy as a representative of one of the Czech companies. In 1920-1921 he worked in the Czech Embassy in Rome , then in a trading company in Palermo . He made commercial trips to Asia Minor, Greece, Spain, France, North Africa.

After returning to his homeland, he was the secretary of the Mánes Society of Progressive Czech Artists, and subsequently its director. In the 1930s, Toman was mainly engaged in drama and literary work, and published a lot in the left-wing press. For theatrical performances of an anti-fascist character he was persecuted.

After the end of World War II, in 1945-1953 he worked in the theater department under the Ministry of Education, and since 1948 he led the program to promote the arts. Since 1953 he devoted himself exclusively to literature.

The author of anti-fascist plays, created in collaboration with his wife, Miroslava Tomanova (1906-1991), collections of poems, prose of a social, lyrical and historical nature, children's literature. He starred in the comedy “The Chicken and the Sexton ” (1951, directed by Oldrich Lipsky ).

Poetry

• "Holiday of Summer" (1925),
• "Poems from the Trenches" (1946)

Pieces

• The Black Sun (1928),
• “House without windows” (1933),
• "Friend" (1936),
• The River Charms (1936, filmed)
• "Friend" (1936, co-authored with Miroslava Tomanova),
• "Toad in the spring" (1938),
• The Vineyard (1938).

• "David Chron" (1929)
• “A Man from Somewhere” (1933),
• "About the timid Krishpin and the impatient Katerina" (1934),
• The Wasp Nest (1938),
• Don Giovanni (1944)
• "Slavic sky" (1948),
• The Bear Corner (1957, co-authored by Miroslava Tomanova),
• The Italian Palette (1962, co-authored with Miroslava Tomanova),
• "Caligula or After us at least a flood" (1963)
• Socrates (1975)

• Joseph Toman