josef studied czech and french languages at charles university in prague between 1938 and 1939. after the closure of colleges during world war ii he undertook several jobs. he worked as a script editor in divadlo satiry. he also worked as a journalist; his jokes, images and poetry were published in the newspaper rovnost. after the war he worked in radio, movies and the theater. for example, he created a so-called ″rozhlásky″ for the czechoslovak radio; this was news for younger listeners. after 1947 he devoted himself fully to literature.