About us – Contacts, Distribution, Books on English

The Akropolis Publishers was founded in 1990 as a private publishing house belonging to Jiří Tomáš. In the first year of its existence it published books in cooperation with the Tip-Š Agency and concurrently provided a publishing service for TV Spektrum, Inc. Subsequently it started independent activities (the Akropolis Publishers logo was created by Oldřich Pošmurný). To date the publishing house has about two hundred titles to its account in overall print-runs exceeding 1 400 000 copies (the majority, however, fall into the period of the early 1990s).
The non-commercial literature published could be divided roughly into three different areas. The first consists of "classic" fiction by Czech or foreign authors. This is served above all by the special Premiéra emblem series, designed for works by world writers that for various reasons had not previously been translated into Czech (already published editions in the series include prose works by A. Schnitzler, J. Földes, F. Sagan, A. Strindberg, F. Dürrenmatt, M. Brod, H. Böll, R. M. Rilke, B. Malamud and most recently Ö. von Horváth). Original Czech prose works are published in a free series without standard external emblem, and here the publisher places the emphasis on new works and not on re-editions (the only exceptions being the Works of E. Hostovský, Fr. Langer and, in part, the Works of J. Seifert). Examples include new prose works by Vl. Körner, Z. Zapletal, I. Hercíková, A. Koenigsmark, M. Stoniš, J. Tichá, P. Skarlanta S. Ochová, O. Linhart, M. Horníček, J. Hanibal, J. Vlášek, E. Valenta, F. Nepil or the authorial duo Z. Bratršovská and F. Hrdlička. In the field of poetry, Akropolis has published work by J. Prévert (Slova), V. Nezval (Praha s prsty deště), J. Holoubek (Piha na nose), E. Petrová (Na zelenou přecházím), Fr. Halas (Sépie, Kohout plaší smrt and Tvář) and J. Seifert (the publication of a 17-volume edition of his Works is now underway, scheduled in the period 2001–2006). In the field of sci-fi literature and fictive history we have published books by O. Knitl or Stanisław Lem.
The major part of the output of Akropolis consists of popular educational literature, above all in the field of history and history of art. This category includes what is probably the publishing house's most successful title: the "sovereign" trilogy consisting of the volumes Ženy a milenky českých králů [Wives and Mistresses of the Bohemian Kings], Muži a milenci českých královen [Husbands and Lovers of the Bohemian Queens] and Děti a levobočci českých králů [Children Legitimate and Illegitimate of the Bohemian Kings], which now has a free sequel in the form of Příbuzní českých králů [Relatives of the Bohemian Kings] and the similarly conceived books Historie českých spiknutí [The History of Czech Conspiracies] and Falza a podvody české historie [Fakes and Frauds of Czech History]. This category also includes titles Lexikon české šlechty [Lexicon of the Czech Nobility], Lexikon českých panovnických dynastií [Lexicon of Ruling Dynasties in Bohemia] , Rytíři renesančních Čech [Knights of Renaissance Bohemia], the encyclopaedic Pražské paláce [Prague Palaces], the title Z mapy UNESCO [From the UNESCO Map], presenting sites and monuments in the CR which are on the UNESCO World Heritage List, and a book on the second Bohemian Winter King Charles Albrecht and his hundred-day reign.
The publisher's top line is a free series of polygraphically outstanding art monographs, launched by two volumes devoted to Vladimír Komárek (Grafika [Prints] and Obrazy [Pictures]). The latter were followed by publications devoted to the work of Oldřich Kulhánek, Vladimír Suchánek, Pavel Roučka and most recently Skupina [Group] 42 (two of them have even been awarded in the Most Beautiful Book competition). Lately two new series have been established at Akropolis. The first is concerned with artistic family dynasties that have influenced the Czech Lands in the last centuries (so far Horyn's The Dientzenhofers, Kořán's The Brauns and lately Neumann's The Škrétas have been published). The second series is devoted to various styles of architecture (the first title to be published in this series was Kuthan's Aristokratická sídla období klasicismu, romantismu a historismu [Aristocratic Seats in the Periods of Classicism, Romanticism and Historicism]). Recently the publishing house has also been preparing titles from the field of literary theory and history, for example Prof. J. Janáčková's Příběh tajemného psaní (O pramenech a genezi Babičky) [The Story of Secret Writing (the sources and genesis of Grandmother)] or Štejer's Žáček [The Pupil], a monograph on Ota Pavel from the pen of the literary historian B. Svozil and a new edition of Šklovský's Teorie prózy [Theory of Prose].
The publishing house is also involved in publishing the papers of some Czech authors, sometimes independently (as in the case of the Works of J. Seifert) or in collaboration with other publishers, as has been the case with E. Hostovský (ERM and the Nakladatelství Fr. Kafky) and Fr. Langer (The Theatre Institute and Kvarta). Since 2004 Akropolis Publishers together with Dr. Lída Holá has published textbooks of Czech as a foreign language.
Since March 2003 a practically identically named publishing house has been in existence belonging to Filip Tomáš – Akropolis . For the reader this makes no difference; all that is relevant is that both creators of the publishing house do business as private individuals and that the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree...

Contacts

The AKROPOLIS Publishers is based at
U Nikolajky 10, 150 00 Praha 5, Tel.: +420/ 251 560 234 or 603 836 682 (Jiří Tomáš) e-mail: tomas.akropolis@worldonline.cz
Filip Tomáš, Severozápadní IV 16/433, 141 00 Praha 41, +420/ 222 360 991; ICQ 123732916 ; Skype:ftskypecz
e-mail: filiptomas@akropolis.info

People who would like to visit are asked to telephone to arrange the date and time of the visit beforehand, otherwise they risk making a fruitless journey to Smíchov.

Books published by Akropolis – provided they are not out of print – can be obtained either at the address of the publisher or from its exclusive distributor – since July 2003 it has been KOSMAS, limited, based at Lublaňská 34, 120 00 Praha 2, tel./fax: +420 222 510 749, 222 515 407, e-mail: sklad.lublanska@kosmas.cz Internet bookshop www.kosmas.cz. Warehouse Ruzyně: Kralupská 2, 161 00 Praha 6, tel./fax: 235 318 923, e-mail: sklad.kralupska@kosmas.cz

Books on English:

Lída Holá: New Czech Step by Step