This ballad is based on Havel's recollections of an early experience in his life as a writer, which he recounts in his book "Disturbing the Peace." mp3* score: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 Songs for Vaclav Havel home *A donation of $1 is suggested for each song downloaded. Donations can be sent via PayPal to truecomedy@truecomedy.org or by check payable to True Comedy Theatre Company, at 212 East 13th Street #4A, New York, NY 10003, U.S.A. These donations will be used as follows: one-third of the total donations will be used to pay the artists, one-third will go to the Dagmar and Vaclav Havel Foundation VIZE 97, and one-third will be used for the general purposes of True Comedy Theatre Company, a 501(c)3 nonprofit tax-exempt corporation incorporated in the state of New York for the purpose of producing original plays and performance artworks. Contributions are fully tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

The Ballad of Havel's Literary Debut Young Communist progressives, relatively speaking, Start a magazine supposed to be the cutting edge. So Havel picks up a copy, and he gets the impression that they may have good intentions, but they don't have a clue. For one thing, they don't know about the older generation who revitalized poetry and whose works are suppressed. So Havel writes them a letter, and he points out a few things about what they don't know, because it wasn't taught in school. And then to his surprise, they publish his letter, and they even invite him to their writing conference. He feels a little weird about bout joining this group, but it's the first time he's been published, so he says, "Why not?" When he gets to the conference, they ask if anyone there has anything to say, but no one is prepared. So he puts up his hand and he delivers a talk that he's carefully drafted, and he lays it all out. He reveals a literary world that they don't know about because the authors are banned or at best they are ignored. Now the whole writers' conference is taking its cue from what Havel had to say and the reaction he drew. So now he's on the map. He's got a reputation as a trouble maker to be reckoned with.