Open Letters

From Publishers Weekly A stirring collection of political essays, letters, speeches, autobiographical sketches, interviews and musings, mostly from the years that Havel, now Czechoslovakia's president, spent as his nation's leading dissident. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal This selection of Havel's 25 best essays written since 1965 is a fascinating chronicle of the development and ideas of the greatly admired Czechoslovakian dissident turned president. Whether he muses on Gorbachev, his harassment by the police, or the ever-present danger of injustices being committed in service of noble words, Havel writes with clarity, wit, eloquence, a steadfast optimism, and remarkable courage. Although some of the pieces were already published in Vaclav Havel, or Living in Truth ( LJ 8/87), such as the influential essays on the nature of totalitarianism ("Power of the Powerless") and on the global crises of human responsibility ("Politics and Conscience"), this is an important book that belongs in both academic and public libraries. - Marie Bednar, Pennsylvania State Univ. Libs., University Park Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.