From: Belay Tekalign [mailto:Belay Tekalign]
Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2011 7:39 AM
To: Ask your library
Subject: RE: Ask Your Library
I thank you very much.
Belay
-----Original message-----
From: Ask your library <askyourlibrary@nkp.cz>
To: Belay Tekalign
Sent: Thu, Dec 1, 2011 14:15:10 GMT+00:00
Subject: RE: Ask Your Library
Dear Belay Tekalign,
Adolf Parlesak was born on 7th April 1908 in Czech city called Brno and died
on 1st December 1981. Parlesak traveled from his youth and he often used
bicycle for his journey. At age 14 he visited Austria, Hungary, Romania,
Germany and Poland - it was his first journey; at age 17 he went to Italy and San Marino.
He rode bicycle with his friend Alois Polá k in the Balkans, including Greece and journeyed to
Istanbul [Turkey]. His 4th trip was on a boat called Carniola to the islands of the Aegean Sea.
The 5th journey was the longest; it took 3 years (1928-1930). He started
with Alois Polá k in Brno and rode a bicycle through Budapest to Istanbul, then
continued by boat around the coast of Asia Minor and then again on bicycle to
Damascus and Jerusalem. Through Sinai Peninsula they rode to Egypt, Sudan and
Ethiopia (Abyssinia).
Mr. Polá k stayed in Ethiopia and Parlesak went to Yemen, where he became a guest of the king for a half year. On the African coast there he met with Polá k again and they rode to Brno together. In 1933-1934 Parlesak was in Japan, China or Ceylon.
Other journeys led to Ethiopia again, Parlesak met Czech people in Addis Ababa. Emperor Haile Selassie received him several times. Parlesak joined the war effort on the Ethiopian side (he was one of the few Europeans who offered help) and in the end he was a witness to the Emperor´ s defeat.
The war atmosphere maybe what was attractive to Parlesak, because in 1937 he
took part in Spain’s Civil War as a war correspondent.
In summer 1938 he went through Poland to Finland, but when he learnt about
mobilization of Czechoslovakia, he returned home. After Second World War he
planned to travel by car around the world, unfortunately it did not come true.
Although he traveled many countries, Parlesak wrote only one travel guide (Habeš ská
Odyssea), which is considered to be one of the best travel book of his
period. In Czech Republic it was published in 1948 and 1989. Probably he
also wrote journal articles.
This is the main information we have found about Adolf Parlesak,
unfortunately the books are only in Czech. We used these books:
* TOMEŠ , Josef a kol. Č eský biografický slovní k XX. století . Praha: Paseka,
1999. 3 sv. ISBN 80-7185-248-1.
* BOROVIČ KA, Michael. Velké dě jiny zemí Koruny č eské . Tematická ř ada.
Cestovatelství . Vyd. 1. Praha: Paseka, 2010. 757 s., [8] s. barev. obr.
pří l. ISBN 978-80-7432-033-0.
* HRUBÍŠ EK, Ivo. 100 + 1 osobností & bicykl: kolo v ž ivotě a dí le zná mý ch a
slavný ch lidí . 1. souhrnné vyd. Plzeň : Cykloknihy, 2009. 343 s. ISBN
978-80-87193-08-2.
I hope this information will be useful to you.
Yours sincerely
Veronika …
Reference Center
The National Library of the Czech Republic
-----Original Message-----
From: ptejteseknihovny nkp.cz [mailto:ptejteseknihovny nkp.cz]
Sent: Monday, November 28, 2011 7:46 PM
To:
askyourlibrary@nkp.cz
Subject: Ask Your Library
Your Name: Belay Tekalign
Your E-mail Address: Belay Tekalign
Choose a Library:
askyourlibrary@nkp.cz
Subject: Biography of Adolf Parlesak
Detailed formulation of the question:
I am looking for a biography of Adolf Parlesak who was born around 7/4/1908 in Brno. He was in Africa, Ethiopia, during the Italo-Abyssinian war 1928-1937 with compatriot Colonel Konovalov.
Adolf Parlesak wrote a "Lawrence of Arabia" kind sizzling and sensational diary and
published it under the title Habeš ská Odyssea. The book was recently
translated to Amharic by an Ethiopian expatriate who live in Czech [I presume] -Techane Jobre Mekonnen - and became a favorite read in Ethiopia and by Diaspora Ethiopians.
I was in Prague for a short while, as a student, during mid-1980. I had the fortune to visit Gregory Mendel's Brno and live in Bratislava (current Slovakia). I am a diaspora Ethiopian turned US Citizen who currently reside in California and work for University of California, Merced Campus.
I really appreciate any kind of information on the life and times of this heroic and colorful individual - Adolf Parlesak.
Can you help giving me pointers?
Belay Tekalign
University of California
--- THE END ---
P.S.
Interesting Links
The Book :
http://bit.ly/tKXP3h
Comment on FaceBook:
http://it-it.facebook.com/note.php?note ... 0690754624