Charles Jonas (1840-1896)

"Charles Jonas (Karel Jonas) was an important political and cultural figure in both nineteenth-century Europe and America. As a Czech European in his youth he was representative of a new complexity in Czech political life during the waning years of the Bach era (1849-59) and then during the initial stages of constitutional experimentation in the Austrian empire. His childhood was spent in Malesov, Bohemia, near Kutna Hora, where he probably had contact with Karel Havlicek Borovsky, the pioneer Czech political journalist." "In 1859 he was a student at the Prague Technical School until his internal and then external exile in 1860. In Prague his abilities brought him into contact with many prominent political and cultural personalities associated with the Czech revival. Among these were Votja Naprstek, Frantisek Rieger, Frantisek Palacky, Josef Barak, and Karel Sabina. He also aroused attention among officials of the Austrian police because of his writings, associations, and political actions." "Austrian police officials forced him to leave Prague in May 1860, and after spending a short period at his birthplace in Malesov and then at an estate north of Prague, he left for England in October 1860. For the next two-and-a-half years he was associated with a group of Czech exiles, including Adolf Straka, medical doctor and 1848-49 revolutionary, and Josef Vaclav Fric, poet, journalist, and revolutionary. This circle maintained contact with Russian emigres, among whom were Alexander Herzen and Mikhail Bakunin, and with Polish exiles." "In March 1863 Jonas journeyed to Racine, Wisconsin, to edit the recently established Slavie, a Czech-language weekly paper with which he was associated until his death. Over the next thirty-three years, Jonas became a Czech-immigrant leader, prominent Wisconsin politician, diplomat, and linguist. As a politician he was close to the "Bourbon" democrats of the upper midwest, and as such was associated with William Freeman Vilas, and through him, with Thomas Bayard and even Grover Cleveland. Indeed, Jonas dedicated his excellent Czech grammar Bohemian Made Easy to President Cleveland. Three sojourns in Europe (1870-71, 1886-89, 1894-96) as either a correspondent or consular officer reaffirmed his ties to his homeland." "Indeed, the tragic mental illness of the last two years of his life, his suicide in Germany, and his last will specifying that he be buried in Prague suggest that he had never reconciled himself to his thirty-year exile in America." "At the same time, however, as an "exile," he had on the surface adapted very well. He was Czech America's foremost leader from 1872 to 1896. He spoke English perfectly, he understood American ways (he wrote survival books for his fellow immigrants), and he was the first Czech in the United States to be elected to statewide office (lieutenant governor of Wisconsin) and the first Czech to serve in the U.S. consular service. Truly, with his old-country affiliations, he was an "Old Czech" (Czech National Liberal), and with his U.S. associations he was a Bourbon Democrat."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved