About Most
Most: Štvrťročník pre slovenskú kultúru was a Slovak-language cultural-literary quarterly founded in Cleveland in 1954 by Roman Catholic Slovak poet, essayist, writer, and translator Mikuláš Šprinc (1914-1986), with support from Rev. Ján Lach. Šprinc had been instrumental in building and fostering a network of the Slovak Roman Catholic intelligentsia who fled Slovakia after World War II. Together with Andrej Žarnov (1903-1982), Šprinc established the Association of Slovak Writers and Artists Abroad. Šprinc, with the help of Karol Strmeň (1921-1994), served as editor of Most from 1954 until his death in 1986.
Few institutions hold the journal, and very few, if any, have a complete print run. Buried inside is a treasure trove of literary and cultural works by the post-World War II Slovak diaspora. Peter Cabadaj, Catholic modernism scholar, writes:
«Z historického zreteľa predstavuje Most nielen dôležitý pramenno-doku mentačný materiál, ale aj jedinečné svedectvo o tvorivých vzopätiach slo venského exilu. Ide nesporne o naše najvýznamnejšiea najreprezentačnejšie kultúrno-spoločenské periodikum v zahraničí…»
"From a historical point of view, Most is not only an important source and documentation material, but also a unique testimony of the creative upheavals of the Slovak exile. It is undoubtedly our most important and representative cultural and social periodical abroad…"
Cabadaj, Peter. Literárný Slovenský Exil: 1939-1990. Matica Slovenská, 2002. p. 50.
At present, only the initiated know the journal even exists, and only the most determined researchers with means to travel to select libraries and archives can get their hands on the unique cultural and literary primary source material found inside. A digital republication of Most as an open-access web-based historical journal, subject to any limitations for articles or issues still protected by U.S. copyright law, has the potential to be highly impactful for Slovak readers worldwide, exposing these representative works of Slovak Catholic modernism to a new audience.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to the staff at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA, and especially to David Muhlena, Library Director, and Cecilia Rokusek, President and CEO, for their support.
Most was digitized and made available as part of the Words of Passage project.
Related title: Slovakia
Internet Archive collection: https://archive.org/details/mostmagazine
https://bit.ly/mostslovak
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