Open Letters: Selected Writings

Open Letters: Selected Writings by Havel, Vaclav. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780679400271.

Spanning twenty-five years, this historic collection of writings shows Vaclav Havels evolution from a modestly known playwright who had the courage to advise and criticize Czechoslovakias leaders to a newly elected president whose first address to his fellow citizens begins, "I assume you did not propose me for this office so that I, too, would lie to you." Some of the pieces in Open Letters, such as "Dear Dr. Husak" and the essay "The Power of the Powerless," are by now almost legendary for their influence on a generation of Eastern European dissidents; others, such as some of Havels prison correspondence and his private letter to Alexander Dubcek, appear in English for the first time. All of them bear the unmistakable imprint of Havels intellectual rigor, moral conviction, and unassuming eloquence, while standing as important additions to the worlds literature of conscience. From the Trade Paperback edition.