Shortly before his death, the Czech art critic Jindřich Chalupecký decided to sell part of his written legacy to the Museum of Czech Literature. Following his agreement with Marie Krulichová, an employee of the acquisition department of the Literary Archives of the Museum of Czech Literature, he sold his correspondence and some of his friends’ manuscripts to the Museum in the spring of 1989. At that time, the control of the communist regime weakened and the Museum of Czech Literature supported unofficial artists and writers through similar purchases of their documents. The collection of correspondence contained, for example, letters from Czech artists Kurt Gebauer, Eva Kmentová, Jiří Kolář, Karel Nepraš, Zbyněk Sekal or Adriena Šimotová. Chalupecký also corresponded with Canadian translator and writer Paul Wilson, who was expelled from Czechoslovakia in 1977, and with Czech writer and literary historian living in the United States, Milada Součková. The collection of correspondence contained almost 2000 letters. Together with the correspondence, Chalupecký also sold some of his friends’ manuscripts (ca. 750 pages), for example poems of Josef Kainar or Josef Škvorecký, to the Museum. The extent of this part of the Jindřich Chalupecký Collection, sold to the Museum of Czech Literature in 1989, totalled 6 cartons (boxes).

The Jindřich Chalupecký collection was later extended. The majority of materials were given to the Museum by Chalupecký’s wife, poet and translator, Jiřina Hauková, in the 1990s. Some documents became part of the collection later, after Jiřina Hauková’s death in 2005. Nowadays, the collection is stored in 51 carton (boxes).