Pavel and Winn Family Collection.

The Winn [Wiener] family:

Josef Winn (1901 Podebrady-1983 New York) was a psychiatrist and a writer. He wrote short stories, aphorisms and commentaries mainly in a satirical and comical style under his pseudonym Alcantara. His works were published largely in “Lidové noviny,” “Tribuna” and “Dobrý den” (satirical biweekly magazine edited by Karel Poláček). Josef Wiener was also a friend and the physician of the members of the “Liberated Theater” Osvobozené Divadlo, a famous Czech avant-garde theatre (1926-1938). Josef Wiener married Hanna Taussig, a daughter of the well-known Prague lawyer Oskar Taussig, and a cousin of the Czech poet Richard Weiner (1884-1937). In August 1939, the Wieners immigrated to the United States with their two daughters, Jana and Marie. They changed their family name from Wiener to Winn, and Josef Wiener thus became Joseph A. Winn. Joseph A. Winn continued with his medical practice as well as with his writings.

The Pavel family:

Zdenka Pavel, née Weiner was born in Písek, Czech Republic. She was the younger sister of Richard Weiner, and after Richard’s death she was the protector of his literary work. She was first married to Vladimír Vochoč, with whom she had a daughter, Anna, and later to Antonín Pavel. Zdenka immigrated to the United States in 1939. After World War II she lived in Paris, France, and after the death of her second husband she divided her time between the United States, Austria and Czechoslovakia.

After Zdenka’s death, Hanna Winn tried to have the works of Richard Weiner published in the US. Today, Richard Weiner’s poems are not well known by the general public, but highly recognized by the literary critic.

Richard Weiner was born in Pisek, today Písek, Czech Republic, on Nov. 6, 1884 and died Jan. 3, 1937. He graduated as a chemical engineer in 1906 from the University of Prague. After additional studies in Zurich and military service in Bohemia from 1907 to 1908, he decided on a career change and left for Paris to become a correspondent for the Prague newspaper 'Samostatnost'. He became a poet and writer and was called the “Czech Franz Kafka”.

Arne Laurin (real name Arnošt Lustig, 1889 Hrnčíře-1945 New York) was an influential Czech-German journalist, a member of ‘Pátečníci’ and an editor of the magazine ‘Tribuna’.

Jiří Kašpárek (George Kasparek) was Winns’ personal friend.