Hiršal, Josef (1920–2003).

[CONCRETE POETRY IN SOCIALIST CZECHOSLOVAKIA] Čtyří básně [Four poems].

[Prague]: UB [Alois Chvála], 1965. Small octavo (15.3 × 10.9 cm). Black paper folder with author's monogram in black and green letterpress design; three loosely inserted folding leaves (one blank, one containing title and colophon, the others with four poems printed using letterpress to rectos and versos). Very good, in protective mylar. Item #P6015

Self-published samizdat edition of four visual and concrete poems by an early pioneer of the genre in Socialist Czechoslovakia. The work was hand-printed by Alois Chvála (1885–1973), a Czech graphic artist, printer, and typographer who would go on to issue at least three similar portfolios of concrete and visual poetry by authors including Jiří Kolář and Bohumila Grögerová. All were likely produced in small runs, using the imprint "UB" and in a curious fusion of bibliophile publication and unofficial samizdat.

From the 1960s on, Josef Hiršal (1920–2003), along with his partner Bohumila Grögerová (1921–2014), was among the leading figures of concrete and experimental poetry in Czechoslovakia. After the Prague Spring of 1968, the pair was unable to publish original work, though numerous texts appeared in samizdat form and both also became prolific translators. The poems selected for this publication, untitled except for “Faulkners apple”, are based on recognizable visual structures that deform or de-limit the text, deleting or adding letters along the edges that make the poems partly sensible, partly randomized. Although many of her texts are accessible even to non-Czech readers, Grögerová remains largely unknown in the English-speaking world; both her and Hiršal’s work await further research and publications.

As of March 2026, KVK, OCLC show two copies in North America.

Price: €600.00

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