The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Seifert, Jaroslav
1901–86, Czech poet. Starting as a revolutionary “proletarian” poet, Seifert soon began to emphasize fantasy and enchantment as antidotes to modern technological civilization. After signing an anti-Stalinist manifesto, he was expelled from the Communist party, and his verse then addressed itself more directly to social themes. Seifert was a signatory of the Czech Charter 77 manifesto. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1984.
