WRITER

Milena Jesenská

1896 - 1944

Photo of Milena Jesenská

Icon of person Milena Jesenská

Milena Jesenská (Czech pronunciation: [ˈmɪlɛna ˈjɛsɛnskaː]; 10 August 1896 – 17 May 1944) was a Czech journalist, writer, editor and translator. She is noted for her correspondence with the author Franz Kafka and was one of the first to translate his work from the German language. After the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia, she joined a resistance movement to help Jews and other refugees. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Milena Jesenská has received more than 282,162 page views. Her biography is available in 37 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 36 in 2019). Milena Jesenská is the 474th most popular writer (up from 491st in 2019), the 55th most popular biography from Czechia (down from 53rd in 2019) and the 8th most popular Czech Writer.

Milena Jesenská is most famous for her work as a Czechoslovakian spy during World War II.

Memorability Metrics

  • 280k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 67.23

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 37

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 10.99

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 2.00

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Ich hätte zu antworten tage- und nächtelang
1996
"Alles ist Leben"
1984
Dopisy Mileny Jesenské
1998
Nad naše síly
1997
The journalism of Milena Jesenská
History
Milena Jesenská, born in Prague in 1896, is most famous as one of Franz Kafka's great loves. Although their relationship lasted only a short time, it won the attention of the literary world with the 1952 publication of Kafka's letters to Milena. Her own letters did not survive. Later biographies showed her as a fascinating personality in her own right. In the Czech Republic, she is remembered as one of the most prominent journalists of the interwar period and as a brave one: in 1939 she was arrested for her work in the resistance after the German occupation of Bohemia and Moravia, and died in Ravensbrück concentration camp in 1944. It is estimated that Jesenská wrote well over 1,000 articles but only a handful have been translated into English. In this book her own writings provide a new perspective on her personality, as well as the changes in Central Europe between the two world wars as these were perceived by a woman of letters. The articles in this volume cover a wide range of topics, including her perceptions of Kafka, her understanding of social and cultural changes during this period, the threat of Nazism, and the plight of the Jews in the 1930s.
20035 / 5
Cesta k jednoduchosti
1982

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Milena Jesenská ranks 474 out of 7,302. Before her are Traudl Junge, Jules Michelet, Athenaeus, Louise de La Vallière, Joris-Karl Huysmans, and Livius Andronicus. After her are Verner von Heidenstam, Natsume Sōseki, Bohumil Hrabal, Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Martial, and W. B. Yeats.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1896, Milena Jesenská ranks 18. Before her are Antonin Artaud, Trygve Lie, Klement Gottwald, Gerty Cori, Andrei Zhdanov, and Leslie Groves. After her are Felix Steiner, Dziga Vertov, Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, Eugenio Montale, Oswald Mosley, and Donald Winnicott. Among people deceased in 1944, Milena Jesenská ranks 25. Before her are Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, Ludwig Beck, Ernst Thälmann, Chūichi Nagumo, Florence Foster Jenkins, and Hilma af Klint. After her are Galeazzo Ciano, Louis Renault, Henning von Tresckow, Wang Jingwei, Friedrich Olbricht, and Arthur Eddington.

Others Born in 1896

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Others Deceased in 1944

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In Czechia

Among people born in Czechia, Milena Jesenská ranks 55 out of 1,200. Before her are Gerty Cori (1896), Josef Masopust (1931), Adalbert of Prague (955), Wenceslaus II of Bohemia (1271), Karel Gott (1939), and Emil Hácha (1872). After her are Bohumil Hrabal (1914), Peter Grünberg (1939), Anton Raphael Mengs (1728), Karl Renner (1870), George of Poděbrady (1420), and Ludmila of Bohemia (860).

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Among WRITERS In Czechia

Among writers born in Czechia, Milena Jesenská ranks 8. Before her are Milan Kundera (1929), Václav Havel (1936), Rainer Maria Rilke (1875), Karel Čapek (1890), Jaroslav Hašek (1883), and Max Brod (1884). After her are Bohumil Hrabal (1914), Franz Werfel (1890), Jaroslav Seifert (1901), Karl Kraus (1874), Julius Fučík (1903), and Jan Neruda (1834).

Czech born Writers

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