Antonín J. Liehm: The Life and Work of a Twentieth-Century Journalist and Public Intellectual

• Published in: The European legacy, toward new paradigms Vol. 29; no. 5; pp. 543 - 553
• Main Author: Raška, Francis D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 03.07.2024; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Antonín J. Liehm; Central European culture and politics; Exile; Liberalization; Teaching
• ISSN: 1084-8770; 1470-1316
• DOI: 10.1080/10848770.2024.2358711

Antonín J. Liehm (1924-2020) was a prominent Czechoslovak journalist and cultural critic, who played a significant role in the cultural liberalization during the 1960s as editor of the literary magazine Literární noviny. Following the Soviet invasion of 1968, Liehm went into exile and joined the struggle to liberate his homeland. He was a major contributor to the exile magazine Listy, established in Rome in the early 1970s by Jiří Pelikán. After some years of teaching at universities in the United States, Liehm moved to Paris where, besides teaching at a number of institutions of higher learning, he founded the cultural magazine, Lettre internationale. In 2010, I met Liehm for the first time and we remained in close contact until his death ten years later. In this article I present Liehm's most significant achievements and my own personal recollections of him as a public intellectual.