Mira Liehm

She was born Drahomíra Novotná on 5 December 1929 in Prague, Czechoslovakia.^[3] She was married to writer Antonín J. Liehm.^[1] She was educated at Charles University, where she obtained her doctorate degree in literary studies in 1953.^[2][4]

After briefly spending time working in foreign relations for Czechoslovak Filmexport [cs], she started working as an editor for media outlets and journals, with one of her early roles being as editor-in-chief for Československý film.^[4][2] She was deputy editor-in-chief for Film a doba [cs],^[5] as well as editor for both Divadelní a filmové noviny and the Journal of Cinema and Television in Prague.^[2][4] She also worked for Filmové a televizní noviny.^[5]

She would publish reviews and critical studies in some of the periodicals she worked with.^[4] She specialized in Italian and Eastern European film,^[4] with her works including Il cinema nell'Europa dell'Est 1960–1977 (1977) and Passion and Defiance (1984).^[1][2][5] In 1972,^[6] she and her husband were awarded a joint Guggenheim Fellowship for a history of cinema in Eastern Europe.^[2] In 1977, she and her husband co-authored The Most Important Art.^[7]

She was among several signatories to "The Two Thousand Words" in 1968.^[4] Following this, she fled the country alongside her husband, eventually settling in the United States.^[4][1] She worked at The New School for Social Research as a lecturer (1971–1972).^[2] In 1982, she and her husband moved to France, where she was a contributor to Lettre International (which her husband ran).^[4] She was part of the selection committee of the International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg.^[4]

In 2013, she and her husband moved back to Prague.^[4] She died on 2 October 2019, at the age of 90.^[5]

• The Most Important Art (1977, with Antonín J. Liehm)^{[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]}
• Passion and Defiance (1984)^[16][17][18]