Seifert, Jaroslav

The Czech poet Jaroslav Seifert was born in the deprived working class district of Zizkov in Prague. He joined the Communist Party early in life, and in the 1920s he was, among other things, editor of the Communist organ Rudé Právo. In 1920 he was also involved in establishing an influential artist collective, Devetsil, that combined an aesthetic avant-garde approach and political radicalism by embracing revolution, joy, beauty and sensualism, partly as a reaction against the terrible effects of the First World War.