Karel Čapek
KAREL ČAPEK was born in the Bohemian province of Austria-Hungary in 1890. He graduated from university in Prague with a doctorate of philosophy. Exempted from military service through ill health, he spent his early years as a journalist and writer, observing the First World War and becoming affiliated with the nascent Czech independence movement. A career filled with plays, stories, novels and non-fiction writing flowered as the postwar era took hold; his play R.U.R. (1920) was immediately internationally celebrated and introduced the word ‘robot’ into common usage. His most famous novel War with the Newts was published in 1936. Many of his works were illustrated, and occasionally co-written, with his brother Josef. Their sister Helena was also a writer. Karel Čapek was nominated for the Nobel Prize seven times, but never won. He died of pneumonia in 1938 at the age of 48. His brother Josef died in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945.
