This well illustrated book provides the definitive review of Hoffmeister's works and his life.According to John Vloemans (internet)" Adolf Hoffmeister was undoubtedly one of the most pittoresque figures of the intellectual and artistic scene in Prague during the interbellum. His was a restless and unconventional spirit, that could not be classified. He was born on August 15, 1902 in Prague into a well-to-do family. Adolf Hoffmeister was described as an elegant globetrotter and art connoisseur, a gourmand,who had a special bond with the magic power of his hometown Prague. He was at once a painter, caricaturist, illustrator, stage decorator, author, playwright,translator, journalist, radio reporter, professor of art, art critic, politician,diplomat, cultural ambassador and world traveller. No wonder he cannot be classified in any of the artistic schools of his country.What he carries his whole life, was his left-intellectual faith, as so many of his generation did. In October 1920 he was the youngest of a group of Czech intellectuals - among them the 1984 Nobel prize winner Jaroslav Seifert (1901-1986) - who founded the leftist art society "Devìtsil". Hoffmeister was the first secretary of "Devìtsil". But soon afterwards he started to travel, to study the cultures of other countries, and his ties with the group became less narrow. During his travels he wrote articles for the Prague journals and magazines.From this period date his many portraits and caricatures of artists and other VIPs, who granted him interviews for his cultural reports. From 1927 onwards he collaborated with the "Liberated Theatre"(Osvobozene Divadlo), became editor of the "Lidove Noviny" journal (1928-1930) and of the "Literarní Noviny" journal (1930-1932). In 1939 he fled the Nazis, first to France, where he was imprisoned in the "La Sante" prison in Paris - as described in his book "Vezeni" (1969) - and later transported to a camp in Southern France. Eventually he went to Morocco, Lisbon and finally New York, an episode he described in his book "Animals are in cages", New York 1941. The Czech edition of that book was published in Prague in 1946 und the title "Turistou proti sve vùli". After the war Hoffmeister returned to Czechoslovakia and became General Director for Cultural Affairs for his country and participated in many activities of the UNESCO. As a left-wing intellectual he welcomed the communist take-over in February 1948 and became ambassador for his country in Paris. As the regime grew more stalinist, he had to withdraw from the diplomatic service and became Professor at the Prague Academy of Decorative Arts, where he headed a special department for children's book illustrations and cartoons, closely related to the cartoon studio of Jioi Trnka.After the collapse of the "Prague Spring" of the sixties - where he again in vain had hoped to realise some of his ideals - he left his country for the second time and became Professor in Vincennes (France). In 1970 he returned to Prague and was declared a non-person and "parlour socialist". He died on July 24, 1973 in Øieky. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.