Václav Havel was born in Czechoslovakia in 1936. Among his plays, those best known in the West are The Garden Party, The Memorandum, Largo Desolato, Temptation, and three one-act plays, Audience, Private View, and Protest. He is a founding spokesman of Charter 77 and the author of many influential essays on the nature of totalitarianism and dissent. In 1979 he was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for his involvement in the human rights movement. Out of this imprisonment came his book of letters to his wife, Letters to Olga (1981). In 1989 he helped to found the Civic Forum, the first legal opposition movement in Czechoslovakia in 40 years; in December 1989 he was elected president of Czechoslovakia; and in 1994 became the first president of the independent Czech Republic. His memoir, To the Castle and Back, was published in 2007. He died in 2011 at the age of 75.

As president of Czechoslovakia and of the nascent Czech Republic, playwright-turned-statesman Havel led central Europe out of communism and into the twenty-first century before stepping down in 2003. With this book, Havel reflects upon his 14 years at Prague Castle but resists the constraints of a traditional memoir, instead combining retrospective commentary with excerpts from memos written to his staff while in office. Although fragmentary and offered with minimal context, these excerpts provide a diarylike glimpse into a leader simultaneously confronting challenges both major (Havel's struggle against so-called Mafia capitalism) and mundane (Havel's struggle to master his own computer system). Besides providing insightful, gently ironic commentary on the rigors of democratic leadership, Havel's unconventional narrative form also highlights his personality--his struggles with writing, his fondness for smokers, and his admiration for Madeleine Albright--somewhat above his significant personal achievements. He also weighs in on current events, including the Iraq War and the obstacles to complete European unification. The net result is a fresh and intimate self-portrait.