title: Zdeňka Bezděková
text: # Zdeňka Bezděková
  
  Zdeňka Bezděková (April 19, 1907 – August 12, 1999) née Vondrušková, was a Czech writer, philosopher, and translator. She was largely known for writing Říkali mi Leni about a Czech girl living in post-war Germany.
  
  ## Early life
  
  Bezděková graduated from the girls' grammar school in České Budějovice, Czech Republic, and went on to study philosophy and literature in Prague and Paris, graduating in 1931.
  
  She first married on June 22, 1929, in Prague, to grammar school professor František Bezděk. They divorced in 1930.
  
  ## Career
  
  Since 1933 she taught, first at secondary school level, then at a grammar school in České Budějovice. After the Second World War she was a teacher in Sušice and Prague. From 1949 she taught Czech literature at the Faculty of Education of the university in České Budějovice (now the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice), where she later headed the Department of Philology. She retired in 1962.
  
  