Vaclav Havel was born in Czechoslovakia in 1936. He is a leading playwright and has long been involved in the human rights movement in Czechoslovakia - and was sentenced to four and a half years imprisonment for this close association. In January 1932, for reasons of health, he was released from prison before his sentence was completed. The letters he wrote to his wife were published as Letters to Olga. Practically everything Havel has ever written has acquired a new resonance since he became President of Czechoslovakia in 1989. This selection of his early prose ranges in time from the early 60s to his New Year message in 1990.