Vladimír Neff Biography

Vladimír Neff was born in Prague into a wealthy business family with a large shop selling kitchenware . He attended a common school for children of patrician families, studied at the real grammar school in Truhlářská Street, and after graduating his parents sent him to the French Business Academy in Geneva in 1925-28. After graduation he worked as a volunteer (trainee) in Vienna, then in a department store in Bremen.

In 1930 Vladimír Neff joined his father's Prague shop. However, he did not return to trading after his military service. In 1935 he took a job as editor and foreign language lecturer at Melantrich.

His success as a writer contributed to the fact that Vladimír Neff devoted himself to his work from 1939 until the end of his life. In 1950, he was briefly a screenwriter at Barrandov. In 1977 he signed Antiarch.

With his wife, the actress Vlasta Petrovic (1903-1980), Vladimír Neff sometimes worked on dramas and translations. Vladimír Neff spent most of his life in Prague, living only in 1946-53 in Slappy.

In 1968 he was awarded the title "Meritorious Artist" and in 1979 the title "National Artist".