Slovak Literature in English Translation

Janko Jesenský (1874-1945) was a poet, prose writer, translator, lawyer, and politician. He was active in the propagation of Slovak culture and language during the difficult years of the Habsburg Empire, when Slovakia was subjected to strong Magyarising pressure. He published nine collections of verse, including Zo zajatia, 1918 (From Captivity), which chronicle his four years as a Russian prisoner of war and member of the Czechoslovak Legions, two plays (unpublished in his lifetime), and eleven works in prose, including his memoirs Cestou k slobode, 1933 (On the Road to Freedom, 2023), an important eyewitness account of the First World War, the establishment of the Czechoslovak Legions and the Czechoslovak National Council, the Russian Revolution and subsequent Russian Civil War.