68 Publishers, also called Sixty-Eight Publishers, Sixtyeight Publishers, or even Nakladatelství 68 ('nakladatelství' is Czech for 'publishing house'), was a publishing house formed in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

in 1971 by Czech

expatriate An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to educated professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either ...

Josef Škvorecký and his wife

Zdena Salivarová Zdena Salivarová (born October 21, 1933) is a Czech-born writer and translator living in Canada. She was born in Prague and studied script-writing at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. She came to Toronto in the year 1969 with her husband ...

. The purpose of 68 Publishers was to publish books by Czech and Slovak writers whose works were banned in communist

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

. The name '68 Publishers' is in commemoration of the

Prague Spring The Prague Spring ( cs, Pražské jaro, sk, Pražská jar) was a period of political liberalization and mass protest in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected First ...

of 1968. Škvorecký and Salivarová began by publishing both Czech originals, and English translations, of Škvorecký's books. The first book, ''Tankový prapor'' (''The Republic of Whores'') was published in 1971 and was followed by others such as ''Prima sezóna'' (''The Swell Season''), '' Zbabělci'' (''The Cowards''), ''Konec nylonového věku'' (''End of the Nylon Age'').Josef Škvorecký Bibliography
/ref> These were followed by the books of Czech and Slovak authors that were banned in Czechoslovakia, and therefore accessible only to the Czech and Slovak community in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

, and elsewhere outside the communist bloc. From here the books traveled secretly to the communist homeland. Many Czech and Slovak writers had their books published by 68 Publishers in the following two decades. Apart from Škvorecký and Salivarová themselves, they were:

Bohumil Hrabal Bohumil Hrabal (; 28 March 1914 – 3 February 1997) was a Czech writer, often named among the best Czech writers of the 20th century. Early life Hrabal was born in Židenice (suburb of Brno) on 28 March 1914, in what was then the province ...

Jan Křesadlo Václav Jaroslav Karel Pinkava (; 9 December 1926 – 13 August 1995), better known by his pen name Jan Křesadlo (), was a Czech psychologist who was also a prizewinning novelist and poet. An anti-communist, Pinkava emigrated to Britain with ...

Alan Levy Alan Levy (10 February 1932 – 2 April 2004) was an American author. Life Alan Levy was born in New York City in 1932 and educated at Brown and Columbia universities. In 1952 at Brown, he co-wrote an original Brownbrokers musical titled ''An ...

, and

Erazim Kohák Erazim Kohák (21 May 1933 – 8 February 2020) was a Czech philosopher and writer. His early education was in Prague. After communists took over Czechoslovakia in 1948, his family escaped to the United States. He died in February 2020 at the a ...

. In 1981, 68 Publishers issued a book by

Jaroslav Seifert Jaroslav Seifert (; 23 September 1901 – 10 January 1986) was a Czech writer, poet and journalist. Seifert was awarded the 1984 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his poetry which endowed with freshness, sensuality and rich inventiveness provides ...

(the only Czech writer to win a

Nobel Prize in Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...

), ''Všecky krásy světa'' (''All the Beauties of the World''). Expatriate Czech musician

Karel Kryl Karel Kryl (12 April 1944 – 3 March 1994) was an iconic Czechoslovak (Moravian born and Czech speaking) poet, singer-songwriter and author of many hit protest songs in which he identified and attacked the hypocrisy, stupidity and inhumanity of ...

had some albums released by 68 Publishers as well. Prior to 1989, 68 Publishers had published over 220 works of mostly original prose, poetry and memoir literature.

Milan Kundera Milan Kundera (, ; born 1 April 1929) is a Czech writer who went into exile in France in 1975, becoming a naturalised French citizen in 1981. Kundera's Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979, then conferred again in 2019. He "sees himsel ...

's novel '' The Unbearable Lightness of Being'' was first published in Czech through 68 Publishers in 1985, though it had already been published in France in 1984.

References

{{Authority control Book publishing companies of Canada Publishing in the Czech Republic Exilliteratur