Václav Marek (writer)
Václav Marek (5 March 190814 May 1994) was a Czechoslovak writer, traveller, publicist, researcher of Saami languages. Early life. Václav Marek was born in Sadská in 1908 to parents Antonín Marek and Marie Mareková (b. Němečková). His father died in 1913, his mother in 1924. He studied in Poděbrady in an economic school in 1923−1924. After 2 years break he served as an apprentice in Studený, and then in a mill in Sadská, in order to help to feed his family. In the mill he lost his left hand in 1926. In 1928 he worked in Lomnice  nad Popelkou for a while for architectural firms, then returned to his birth village, but he had no work. In 1929 he went abroad, visited 20 countries in Europe, where he started to write stories. His father, who travelled in Algeria, China or Vietnam, because he served in the French Legion between 1902−1906, also wrote stories. In 1931 he settled down in Norway in Lapland, where nowadays Børgefjell National Park is located. During World War II he participated in the Norwegian resistance movement. In 1948 he returned to Czechoslovakia. He worked at a biological research department, where he wrote several  articles about hunting and forestry. From 1951 he worked at Research Institute of Forestry in Zbraslav, focusing on soil zoology. From 1955 he worked for the Czechoslovak Academy of Agricultural Sciences as an expert abstractor. The museum of Hattfjelldal organized an exhibition of Marek's pictures taken during his Norwegian stay. In the Børgefjell National Park there is also a trail dedicated to his memory, called Marek's Trail. Work. Since the 1940s he wrote articles about the Sami history, culture and religion. The magazine "Czechoslovak Ethnographie" published several articles on religion and culture of the Samis. He also wrote  a trilogy played in Lapland (Susendal) between the 18 and 20th centuries. Marek's photos are often published in Norwegian ethnographic and historiographic works. His own memories are kept in the National Museum in Prague and they were shown in two exhibitions in the Czech Republic.