The Czechs and Slovaks in Canada - Paperback

by John Gellner (Author), John Smerek (Author)

This is a chronicle of one of the many ethnic groups in Canada, a group of about 80,000 people of Czech and Slovak origin who now live in this country. In the authors' own words, "the book is addressed both to Canadian-Canadians and to Czech-and-Slovak Canadians (if there is such a distinction)." The latter will learn from it who their fellow citizens of similar origin are, where they came from, what they brought to this country, and how they succeeded here. The book provides the "Canadian-Canadian" with a straightforward history of the Czechs and Slovaks, their settlement and cultural organizations, and gives some account of the many Czechs and Slovaks who have made their mark in Canada. It is published on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia in 1918.

Author Biography

John Gellner (1907-2001) was an author and journalist. A graduate of Masaryk University in Brno, Czech, where he practised law until 1939, Gellner served in the RCAF from 1940 until he retired with the rank of wing commander in 1958 to become a freelance journalist. Mr. Gellner is the author of many articles on defence and Eastern European affairs, and for four years was the editor of the political monthly, Commentator.
John Smerek held a variety of civil service positions for seventeen years, the last (1948) being that of a counsellor in the Czechoslovak Embassy in Rome. The author of many articles on international and inter-ethnic affairs, Mr. Smerek also worked for the Provincial Government of Ontario.