Nezval was one of the founders of the avant-garde group Dev_tsil (Nine Powers) which revolutionized Czech literature in the 1920s. Nezval's second volume of poetry, The Marvelous Magician, spoke for the poet's violent struggles in the underworld against society, influencing Jaroslav Seifert and others. In the 1930s, affected in part by his journeys to Paris, Nezval discovered surrealism, incorporating it into Czech literature. This book brings together, for the first time in English, many of Nezval's great poems, revealing his poetic achievement.

Born in Moravia 1900, Vitezslav Nezval was one of the greatest figures in Czech poetry, and influenced many other writers. His connection with surrealism and with the art world in general made him an international figure. He died in 1958.