Self-righteousness is a loud din raised to drown the voice of guilt within us

Playwright, essayist, former dissident and politician                          

Selected Works:

Collections of poetry:

Čtyři rané básně
Záchvěvy I & II - 1954
První úpisy - 1955
Prostory a časy - poesie - 1956
Na okraji jara - cyklus básní - 1956
Anticodes - Antikódy

Plays:

Motormorphosis 1960
An Evening with the Family - 1960 - Rodinný večer
The Garden Party - Zahradní slavnost - 1963
The Memorandum - 1965 - Vyrozumění
The Increased Difficulty of Concentration - 1968 - Ztížená možnost soustředění
Butterfly on the Antenna - 1968 - Motýl na anténě
Guardian Angel - 1968 - Strážný anděl
Conspirators - 1971 - Spiklenci
The Beggar's Opera - 1975 - Žebrácká opera
Unveiling - 1975 - Vernisáž
Audience - 1975 - Audience - a Vanӗk play
Mountain Hotel 1976 - Horský hotel
Protest - 1978 - Protest - a Vanӗk play
Mistake - 1983 - Chyba - a Vanӗk play
Largo desolato 1984 - Largo desolato
Temptation - 1985 - Pokoušení
Redevelopment - 1987 - Asanace
Tomorrow - 1988 - Zítra to spustíme
Leaving - Odcházení 2007
Non-fiction books:

The Power of the Powerless - 1985 - Includes 1978 titular essay.
Living in Truth - 1986
Letters to Olga - Dopisy Olze - 1988
Disturbing the Peace - 1991
Open Letters - 1991
Summer Meditations - 1992/93
Towards a Civil Society - Letní přemítání - 1994
The Art of the Impossible - 1998
To the Castle and Back - 2007.                          

Tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia - 1989–92 First President of the Czech Republic -1993–2003.                          

Havel was a major supporter of The Plastic People of the Universe, becoming a close friend of its members, such as its manager Ivan Martin Jirous and guitarist/vocalist Paul Wilson, who later became Havel's English translator and biographer and a great fan of the rock band The Velvet Underground, sharing mutual respect with the principal singer-songwriter Lou Reed, and is also a lifelong Frank Zappa fan.
Havel is also a great supporter and fan of jazz and frequented such Prague clubs as Radost FX and the Reduta Jazz Club, where President Bill Clinton played the saxophone when Havel brought him there.
The period involving Havel's role in the Velvet Revolution and his ascendancy to the presidency is dramatized in part in the play Rock 'n' Roll, by Czech-born English playwright Tom Stoppard. One of the characters in the play is called Ferdinand, in honor of Ferdinand Vaněk, the protagonist of three of Havel's plays and a Havel stand-in.
In 1996, due to his contributions to the arts, he was honorably mentioned in the rock opera, RENT during the song La Vie Boheme.
Samuel Beckett's 1982 short play "Catastrophe" was dedicated to Havel while he was held as a political prisoner in Czechoslovakia.