Melville House Books

Two years after stepping down as president of Czechoslavkia, and in apparent recovery of respiratory problems brought on by years of chain-smoking, Vaclav Havel is planning to resume his literary career, according to a BBC News wire story. Havel “is preparing to take a two month break in Washington to study at the US Library of Congress,” says the report, as he begins work on three projects: an autobiography, a play based on King Lear, and “a book of conversations with friends, including former Polish dissident and journalist Adam Michnik and British historian Timothy Garton Ash.” Havel has cancelled the Washington trip twice due to health problems, but an aide says he is “feeling well, in good health.”

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.