The Good Soldier Švejk

The first scholar to seriously investigate Hašek's endeavours at Svět zvířat was Břetislav Hůla. In 1950, the book Malá zoologická zahrada (The Small Zoological Garden)[a] was published with Zdena Ančík listed as editor, although Hůla no doubt did the groundwork. Unfortunately, the book provides no information about the origin of the stories. This article seeks to rectify this shortcoming by providing a complete literature list.

The Small Zoological Garden,1950

Most of the book comprises Hašek's animal-related stories from various publications. Finally, the book contains a collection of brief reports, all from Svět zvířat. The collection contains 29 signed stories (nine from Svět zvířat) and 17 short and unsigned notices, all from Svět zvířat. Eleven of the stories were published in the series Sebrané spisy Jaroslava Haška in the interwar years, whereas Břetislav Hůla identified the rest after World War II.

The book is illustrated by Josef Lada and also contains an introduction by Zdena Ančík that serves few other purposes than to extol the virtues of Jaroslav Hašek the Communist.

Haškologists barking up the wrong tree by claiming that Hašek discovered new species.

He does, however, reserve a few lines relevant to the book's content. Unfortunately, he barks up the wrong tree by claiming that the book mentions seven unknown species, such as Hašek's alleged zoological inventions...The truth is that all of them were already known to science by the turn of the century. That the blue whale and the tyrannosaurus are claimed to be Hašek's "discoveries" witnesses astounding zoological illiteracy on the part of the editor(s). Only Engineer Khún's Flea can, to a limited degree, lay claim to having been "discovered" by Hašek.

The main stories

Hltoun strašlivý (the terrible guzzler) was a creature that was first brought to life in Karikatury in July 1911, many months after Hašek left Svět zvířat.

Karikatury,31.7.1911

The book contains 30 chapters, of which 29 are mostly fiction written by Hašek. Identifying these stories proved easy as they are included in the official bibliography[d] of Jaroslav Hašek. There is little doubt that Hašek wrote all of them, although some are signed with pseudonyms or left unsigned. In these cases, scholars established the authorship by analysing the text, mostly through the effort of Břetislav Hůla. In the links section at the end of this article a complete list is provided.

Amongst these 29 are two stories Hašek wrote about his time as editor of Svět zvířat and were written relatively soon after he left the magazine[ka1][ko1]. The stories are important because they set in motion many of the legends surrounding Hašek and Svět zvířat, which live on even in 2024. Hašek mystified his experiences at the magazine, writing about "discoveries" never seen in the columns of Svět zvířat, and distorted other details. Readers of The Good Soldier Švejk will notice the parallels to Einjährigfreiwilliger Marek's tales on the train to Bruck, for instance, that he saw the need to enrich the animal world with new species! In these two stories, Hašek professed that he wrote about imaginary animals in Svět zvířat, for instance, details about creatures like the werewolf and the terrible guzzler. He even had the cheek to declare existing animals like the sulphur-bellied whale as his invention, again a parallel to Marek.

The collection of brief reports

Drunkenness amongst animals. This entry is surely the work of Hašek and seems to be factual. Many stories about animals and alcohol circulated, then as now. In the bibliography the entry is put in the category debatable authorship.

Svět zvířat,1.8.1909

The unsigned items from Svět zvířat were however much harder to identify, particularly those that were not printed during Hašek's terms as editor of the journal. The reports invariably appeared in the "From around the world" feature column. Seven of the seventeen items were printed by Svět zvířat during Hašek's two periods as editor. The volumes from the years (1909, 1910, 1912 and 1913) are available and searchable digitally, so locating and dating these seven reports was straightforward.

The remaining 10 items had to be searched for in paper volumes, so finding them has proved time-consuming. The volumes 1900, 1901, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1907 were browsed manually, whilst 1908 and 1911 were made available as scanned (non-searchable) copies provided by dr. Martin Dvořák.

Refuted authorship

The artcile Moderní lov velryb (Modern whalehunting) was taken from the German magazine Über land und Meer and was probbably translated by Hašek. The photos were also cut from the orginal article. Thus, the suplhur-bellied whale was not discovered by Hašek.

Svět zvířat,1.6.1909

It is clear from the table that there is very little that can be attributed to Hašek and the seven species that Ančík claims were discovered by him were all known to science at the time the reports were published in Svět zvířat.

Further, it is safe to conclude that four[z10][z11][z12][z14] of the seven stories from Hašek's time as editor are not his work because they had appeared in other publications before they were printed in Svět zvířat [s04][s05][s06][s07].

Further, the six items from 1905 were not written by Hašek simply because he (as far as we know) had nothing to do with the journal until November 1908. To further rule out Hašek as the author: at least three [z04][z07][z15] of the six reports from 1905 originated in other publications.

From studying the issue on 1 September 1911 the editors of Malá zoologická zahrada attribute two stories to Jaroslav Hašek [z01][z06]. This is also a period where he wasn't associated with the magazine. One of these Hašek, however, had a finger, namely the famous Engineer Khún's Flea. The other snippet had already been printed elsewhere [s09]. Thus, 12 of 17 items are ultimately "false positives", 1 remains unidentified [z09], 1 slightly "adapted" by Hašek [s08]. One more story is definitely by Hašek, as it appeared in the column "Merry Corner" when he edited Svět zvířat and even signed J.H.[z03]. Thus, only 2 reports remain unverified, [z05][z13], and were probably written by him (or at least he selected and translated them).

Sensationalism

After studying several volumes of Svět zvířat it is evident that the magazine regularly published entries of a curious and sensational nature, irrespective of who the editor was at the time. Printing this type of material was Svět zvířat's policy and surely contributed to its popularity. This should be no surprise as the journal, after all, belonged in the category "popular science". However, even quality dailies like Prager Tagblatt carried such reports, and in Svět zvířat are found several stories that had appeared in "Tagblatt" a week or two earlier, for instance, the story of a newly discovered species in the Himalayas[s06][z12].

Hůla ignoring the time-line

The asvail bear (sloth bear) was not invented by Hašek and moreover Svět zvířat wrote about this animal four year before he became the editor.

Svět zvířat,15.8.1905

In an unpublished note from 1950, Břetislav Hůla stated that there are reasons to believe that Hašek contributed to Svět zvířat at least four years before he officially became an editor[c], in other words, from 1905. On what basis he arrived at this conclusion is not known, but he underlines his point by including six items from 1905, where four of them were printed in the issue from 15 August 1905.

Another objection to Břetislav Hůla's selection of material is that some of the stories had already been printed in Austro-German newspapers and could not have been the work of Hašek nor anyone else at the Svět zvířat. One must assume that the stories were picked and translated either by Fuchs or his co-editor Karel Ladislav Kukla.

Pytlík critical

In Zábavný a poučný koutek Jaroslav Haška (1973), Radko Pytlík noted that Břetislav Hůla included reports and notes that Hašek did not write and could not have written, as they were printed at a time when he was not yet the editor of Svět zvířat [b]. He and the other editors, therefore, left out the stories from 1905, 1911 and early 1912. Still, there remains an element of uncertainty (as the case of Engineer Khún's Flea proves.

Jediným badatelem, který se touto oblastí Haškovy činnosti zabýval, byl Břetislav Hůla. Hůla nebyl kritický k Haškovu humornému vyprávění a k bohémské legendě; zaměřil se proto na výběr zpráv s tematikou „objevů“ nových zvířat a na anekdotické prvky, obsažené v lokálkách. Dospěl k ničím neohraničenému celku, který zahrnoval i zprávy a noticky, jež Hašek evidentně nepsal a psát nemohl, neboť byly otištěny v době, kdy ještě nebyl redaktorem Světa zvířat.

Radko Pytlík, 1973

Legends allowed to live on

By 1950, Hůla had gathered enough information to bury some of the myths about Hašek and Svět zvířat that over the years had been created by the Jaroslav Hašek himself, Emil Artur Longen, Václav Menger and many others. He (or rather Zdena Ančík) chose not to do so and thus ensured that scholars and ordinary readers continued (and continue) to believe that Hašek once upon a time lured phantasy creatures like the vlkodlak (werewolf) and the hltoun strašlivý (the terrible gobbler) into the columns of Svět zvířat...

Ančík's seven wonders

In the introduction to Malá zoologická zahrada, Zdena Ančík claimed that Hašek "discovered" no less than seven species that could not be found in any natural science publications or encyclopaedia. Let us, therefore, investigate Hašek's, Břetislav Hůla's and Ančík's fantasy creatures one by one...

Conclusion

Unfortunately, Malá zoolgická zahrada contains many "false hits", i.e. stories and reports that Jaroslav Hašek didn't write, although he may have translated some of them. This led the editor(s) to conclude that Hašek "discovered" new animals, a dubious claim given the findings that prompted me to write this article.

That said, the book deserves attention because it includes many stories and reports that until 1950 never had been published in book form and were thus largely unknown to the reading public. It is also a testimony to Břetislav Hůla's meticulous research in identifying stories by Hašek in various publications, an effort that he rarely is given credit for (his name is not mentioned in the book).

Literature

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• Zvláštní zvíře, KopřivyJaroslav Hašek,6.6.1912 [ko1]
• Milostný román lidoopa konsula Petra, Svět zvířat,15.5.1909
• Má drahá přitelkyně Julča, Zlatá PrahaJaroslav Hašek,23.4, 30.4, 7.5.1914
• O domýšlivém kocouru Bobešovi, Svět zvířatJaroslav Hašek,1.3.1910
• Povídka o neslušném ježkovi, Humoristické listyVojtěk Hanáčík,10.7.1908
• Na výstavě psů, Svět zvířatJaroslav Hašek,15.5.1912
• Povídka z hipodromu, Zlatá PrahaJaroslav Hašek,5.12.1913
• Manželská nevěra, Dělnický rodinný kalendář na r. 1914Jaroslav Hašek,1913
• O jednom hrozném psu, Svět zvířatJaroslav Hašek,15.2.1909
• Oslík Guat, Národní listyJaroslav Hašek,6.11.1904 also SZ, 15.6.1909
• Proč měl Bači zaražen postup, Humoristické listyJaroslav Hašek,27.3.1914
• Konec opice, Národní listyJaroslav Hašek,28.3.1902
• Kaťouráci, SvětozorJaroslav Hašek,31.12.1914
• Světci a zvířata, KarikaturyJaroslav Hašek,27.5.1909
• Rekův románek, Besedy liduJaroslav Hašek,13.6.1914
• O spletené rosničce, Svět zvířatJaroslav Hašek,15.2.1913
• Můj obchod se psy, Jaroslav Hašek,1915 From the book "Můj obchod se psy a jiné humoresky"
• Opat Fronto a velbloudi, KarikaturyAlban Scleichleiter,1.4.1909
• Vojenský pes pana hejtmana, Národní listyJaroslav Hašek,20.10.1903
• Kámen mudrců, České slovoJaroslav Hašek,18.6.1911
• Příhoda vojáka Svobody a jezevčíka Čora, České slovoAntonín Kočka,27.3.1911
• O dvou mouchách, které to přečkaly, Právo liduH.,8.2.1914
• O nejošklivějším psu Balabánovi, Svět zvířatJaroslav Hašek,15.4.1913
• O slepičce idealistce, Svět zvířatJaroslav Hašek,15.3.1913
• Podivuhodné dobrodružství kocoura Markuse, Humoristické listyJaroslav Hašek,6.2.1914
• Smiloval se k ránu nad trýzněným koněm, České slovo,5.1.1912
• Román novofoundláka Oglu, Humoristické listyJaroslav Hašek,27.12.1912
• V přírodovědeckém časopise, KarikaturyJaroslav Hašek,31.7.1911 [ka1]
• Účinek hudby na zvířata, Svět zvířat,15.6.1909

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• Pravěká blecha, Svět zvířat,1.9.1911 [z01]Neues Wiener Journal, 19.8.1911
• Kocour zachráncem, Svět zvířat,1.3.1912 [z02]Národní listy, 15.2.1912
• Naš vše se děti ptají, Svět zvířatJ. H.,1.2.1913 [z03]From "Veselý koutek"
• Nebezpečná hejna zdivočelých škotských ovčáckých psů "Collie", Svět zvířat,15.8.1905 [z04]Allgemeine Sports-Zeitung, 16.7.1905
• Opilství mezi zvířaty, Svět zvířat,1.8.1909 [z05]
• Sešílela následkem štipnuti mouchou, Svět zvířat,1.9.1911 [z06]Plzeňské listy, 21.8.1911
• Papouškové, kteří se v přirodě na svobodě na mol opíjejí, Svět zvířat,1.1.1905 [z07]Deutsches Volksblatt, 10.4.1904
• Z velbloudího žaludku vodu pití je naprosto nemožno, Svět zvířat,15.8.1905 [z08]
• Nepochopený recept ze “Světa rad”, Svět zvířat,-
• Moderní lov velryb, Svět zvířatFrant. Winter,1.6.1909 [z10]Über Land und Meer, no. 32, 1909
• Největší dravec světa, Svět zvířat,15.2.1910 [z11]Arbeiter-Zeitung, 5.2.1910
• Objevení nového zviřete, Svět zvířat,1.8.1909 [z12]Prager Tagblatt, 18.7.1909
• Karikatury v říši zvířat, Svět zvířat,1.1.1910 [z13]
• Žraloci u Messiny, Svět zvířat,15.7.1909 [z14]Prager Tagblatt, 6.7.1909
• Poklad nalezen v žaludku ryby mečouna, Svět zvířat,1.6.1905 [z15]Prager Tagblatt, 23.5.1905
• Nepezpečné lovy na lidožravé medvědy asvaily ve Východní Indii, Svět zvířat,15.8.1905 [z16]Sloth bear. Brehm?
• Mravenci ničiteli vajec v hnízdech ptačích, Svět zvířat,15.8.1905 [z17]

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• Papageien, die sich bezechen, Deutsches Volksblatt,10.4.1904 [s01]Svět zvířat, 1.1.1905
• In der Tiefe, Prager Tagblatt,23.5.1905 [s02]Svět zvířat, 1.6.1905
• Verwilderte Collies, Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung,4..1905 [s03]Svět zvířat, 15.8.1905
• Der moderne Walfischfang, Über Land und MeerFranz Winter,1909 [s04]Svět zvířat, 1.6.1909
• Der Hai von Messina, Prager Tagblatt,6.7.1909 [s05]Svět zvířat, 15.7.1909
• Entdeckung eines neuen Tieres, Prager Tagblatt,18.7.1909 [s06]Svět zvířat, 1.8.1909
• Das größte Raubtier der Welt, Arbeiter-Zeitung,5.2.1910 [s07]Svět zvířat, 15.2.1910
• Ein Floh der Vorwelt, Neues Wiener Journal,19.8.1911 [s08]Svět zvířat, 1.9.1911
• Následky štípnutí mouchy, Plzeňské listy,21.8.1911 [s09]Svět zvířat, 1.9.1911
• Kocour zachránil - osm policejních strážníků, Národní listy,15.2.1912 [s10]Svět zvířat, 1.3.1912

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• Malá zoologická zahrada, Jaroslav Hašek,1950 [a]
• Zábavný a poučný koutek Jaroslava Haška, ed. Zdena Ančík, Radko Pytlík, Milan Jankovič,1973 [b]
• Jaroslav Haška zoologická zahrada, Břetislav Hůla,1950 [c]
• Bibliografie Jaroslava Haška, comenius-bibl.wz.cz,2024 [d]