As part of the Slavic South to Czech Friends Series, the civic association Luka Praha with the help of general partners NITES Miodrag Škrbić and DEA ORH Gallery of Orhideja Škrbić has published the successful novel by Vladimir Pištalo “Tesla, a Portrait Among the Masks” translated into Czech by Pavla Horáková and edited by Irena Wenigová.
For his novel, the contemporary Serbian novelist Vladimir Pištalo won the prestigious NIN Award for best novel of 2008. Since its publication the book has been translated into more than a dozen languages.
Vladimir Pištalo was born in Sarajevo in 1960. He grew up in Mostar, Kraljevo and Belgrade where he graduated from the law faculty. In 1993 he emigrated to the United States. At present, he teaches American and world history at Becker College in Worcester, Massachusetts, and is a visiting lecturer at the Faculty of Political Science in Belgrade, Serbia. In the early 1990s Vladimir Pištalo contributed to the “Vreme” magazine and even before he became a famous author, a number of his texts had been translated into foreign languages. Besides his successful novel about Tesla his works include the novel “Milenijum u Beogradu” (Millennium in Belgrade), collections of short stories “Kraj veka” (End of a Century), “Vitraž u sećanju” (Memory of a Stained Glass) and “Priče iz celog sveta” (Stories from All Over the World), and the novella “Korto Malteze” (Corto Maltese).
The novel “Tesla, a Portrait Among the Masks” is a lyrical monograph about the famous inventor Nikola Tesla. We follow the happenings in the life of Tesla the individual and celebrity during both the European and American stages of his life. For the first time this book also features his stay in Prague in more detail. The novel brings to life the historical period as well as the emergence of new ideas which marked the beginning of a new era. The biographical novel about the genius inventor is not only a depiction of Tesla’s life but also a story of a great era. Pištalo successfully combines historical subject matter with poetic imagery; the novel is both a fresco and an icon, a saga and a personal history.
The book was launched at the 56th International Book Fair in Belgrade (October 23 – 30, 2011) and in Prague on December 15th 2011.
The Slavic South to Czech Friends Series
Editor-in-Chief: Veso Djorem
General Partner: Galerie DEA ORH, Orhideja and Miodrag Škrbić
Partner: Restaurace Luka Lu
(October, 2011)
The world-renowned physicist Nikola Tesla, one of the greatest minds in the history of humankind, was born on July 10th 1856 in the village of Smiljan in the region of Lika in today’s Croatia, into the family of the Orthodox priest Milutin Tesla and his wife Djuka Tesla, née Mandić. From his high school years the young Nikola excelled over his peers mainly in technical subjects. In the 1970s Tesla moved to Austria to study electrical engineering at the Graz Polytechnic. The death of his father left him without resources. He then left Austria for the more affordable Prague where he planned to conclude his studies but his financial situation did not permit that. He took a liking to Prague because of “the amiable nature of the local people whose unaffectedness and openness reminded him of the Yugoslav mentality,” as he put it.
In 1881–1882 he lived in Budapest where he helped to build a telephone exchange for a telegraph company. There he developed a device for the amplification of voice in telephone, starting his career of great inventions. A year later he was offered to a job in the Paris chapter of the Continental Edison Company which he happily accepted. The genius of Nikola Tesla was soon noticed. After he designed the rotating magnetic field, Edison’s company offered him a job in its New York headquarters. Tesla naturally accepted and soon he became Edison’s chief rival. A few years later he founded his own company in the United States. In this period he designed his most important inventions: electric motors, generators and the two and three phase induction motor which still plays a crucial role in industry.
With over 700 patents, Tesla (along with Faraday) is considered the most prolific inventor in history. The unit of magnetic flux density – tesla (T) – was named after him in his honour. To this day he remains the only Slav who has a physical unit of measurement named after him.
Towards the end of his life Tesla lived in the New Yorker Hotel, lonely and forgotten. An injury sustained in a car accident confined him to his room. He did not complain. Throughout his life, he lived a lonely existence, thoroughly absorbed by his great ideas. The great inventor died a very poor man in his hotel room on January 7th 1943. The funeral was financed by Yugoslav immigrants. Without them he would probably have ended up in a nameless grave like Mozart. On the occasion of the funeral, New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia said:
“Nikola Tesla died in poverty. But he was one of the most useful and successful men who ever lived. His achievements were great and are becoming greater as time goes on.”
