The project seeks to assess the long-lasting relationship between politician and philosopher T. G. Masaryk and poet J. S. Machar. The main emphasis is put on the friendship of the two intellectuals while following social and personal prerequisites of the origin and nature of their friendship and its consolidation through public, political and literary struggles. Attention will also be paid to the interference between the private and public spheres. This is a new perspective that will contribute to better understanding of work, activities and models of conduct of the two significant personalities, to highlighting links among politics, thinking and literature. A corpus of more than 500 recently rediscovered letters provides the basis for the research. The project will result in three publications: an interdisciplinary monograph dealing with Masaryk and Machar and two volumes of a commented edition of their correspondence: the first volume covering the years 1897–1900, the second volume covering the years 1901–1932. In addition, two analytical studies will be published.
