Slovak biographical dictionary

By Augustín Maťovčík

This lexicon provides a condensed survey of over 850 prominent personalities of Slovakia, from ancient times to the present who have played a visible role in all the various spheres of creative work,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 8070906375
• ISBN13: 9788070906378
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Bolchazy-Carducci
• Length: 417 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.

Customer Reviews

An inclusive, all-in-one reference...

This encyclopedic reference was a multi-peopled task, undertaken by 4 main writers, 3 reviewers, 8 translators and 6 English version editors. The brief introduction to the book informs us that its chief aims are to provide a condensed survey of the prominent personalities of Slovakia from ancient times up through 1997 (only persons who have died before the end of 1997 are included in this Dictionary). The book is inclusive of Slovak men and women involved in all spheres of the arts and sciences and the range of personalities is remarkable. The first entry, an Omodej Aba, a "county official from the 14th century" has an unknown DOB, but is listed has having died in Kosice in 1311. Contrast this with the last person in the Biographical Dictionary: Darina Zuravlevova, a singer who died in Bratislava in 1988. There are no photos in the book, unfortunately, although the front and back covers feature several small, slightly out-of-focus photographs of many more well-known Slovaks. The entries are all presented in a uniform fashion and the print size of the dictionary is just right--not too small, like it is in many encyclopedias. Dates are provided in the typical Slovak fashion of day-month-year and last names are listed in alphabetical order per the Slovak alphabet (with last names beginning with a diacritical letter coming after the non-diacriticals). Most entries run about 250 words and succinctly include pertinent life date and a review of the person's main works and activities. Bibliographies are also provided when available. Longer ones are reserved for Slovaks of major significance, like Andrej Hlinka or Tiso. The publishers explain that the Dictionary was compiled to give a wide audience a glimpse into the Slovak national character; no effort was made to select or de-select persons due to political ideology or orientation and they were especially careful to include clerical and secular intelligentsia during the period of national enlightenment in Slovakia. You will be surprised at the wide range of persons in this volume as it includes actors, veterinarians, noblemen, geologists, physiologists and "Hungarian Jacobins," not to mention several composers, artists and writers. All of the writers and editors involved in turning out this handy reference book have excellent credentials, although it would have been nice to have a separate index to list the Dictionary entries by occupation or even region of birth or such...Other than the page-long intro, there are no other appendices, indexes...and with so much of Slovakia's history being under Magyar rule, there are several Hungarian officials (on Slovak soil as we know it today) included in the Dictionary, which may evoke mixed feelings from some readers.