Čapek, Karel, 1890-1938
Biographical note
One of the most important Czech writers of the 20th century.
Karel Čapek was born in Malé Svatonovice, then Austria-Hungary, now Czech Republic.
Karel Čapek wrote with intelligence and humor on a wide variety of subjects. His works are known not only for interesting and exact descriptions of reality, but also for his excellent work with the Czech language. He is perhaps best known as a science fiction author, who wrote long before science fiction became established as a separate genre. He can be counted as one of the founders of classical non-hardcore European science fiction, which focuses on possible future (or alternative) social and human evolution on Earth, rather than technically advanced stories of space travel. However, it is best to class him with Aldous Huxley and George Orwell as a mainstream literary figure who used science-fiction motifs.
Many of his works discuss ethical and other aspects of the revolutionary inventions and processes that were already expected in the first half of 20th century. These included mass production, atomic weapons, and post-human intelligent beings such as robots or intelligent salamanders.
In this, Čapek was also expressing fear of upcoming social disasters, dictatorship, violence, and unlimited power of corporations, and trying to find some hope for human beings. Čapek's literary heirs include Ray Bradbury, Salman Rushdie, Brian Aldiss and Dan Simmons.
His other books and plays include detective stories, novels, fairy tales and theatre plays, and even a book on gardening. The most important works try to resolve the problem of epistemology, or "What is knowledge?": The Tales from Two Pockets, and first of all the trilogy of novels Hordubal, Meteor and An Ordinary Life.
Later, in the 1930s, Čapek's work focused on the threat of brutal Nazi and fascist (but also communist) dictatorships. His most productive years corresponded with the existence of the first republic of Czechoslovakia (1918-1938). He wrote Talks with T.G. Masaryk, a Czech patriot and first President of Czechoslovakia and a regular guest at Čapek's Friday garden parties for Czech patriots. This extraordinary relationship between the great author and the great political leader is perhaps unique, and is known to have been an inspiration to Václav Havel. He also became a member of International PEN.
Karel Čapek died in the December preceding the outbreak of World War II and was interred in the Vysehrad cemetery in Prague. Soon after it became clear that the Western allies had refused to help defend Czechoslovakia against Hitler, he refused to eat or leave his country and died of double pneumonia. The Gestapo had ranked him as "public enemy number 2" in Czechoslovakia. His brother Josef Čapek, a painter and also a writer, died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
After the war, Čapek's work was only reluctantly accepted by the Communist regime of Czechoslovakia, since during his life he had refused to believe in a communist utopia as a viable alternative to the threat of Nazi domination.
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Works
- The Luminous Depths and Other Prose (Zarive hlubiny a jine prozy) with brother Josef (1916)
- The Wayside Crosses (Bozi Muka) (1917)
- Pragmatism - The Philosophy of The Practical Life (Pragmatismus cili Filosofie praktickeho zivota) (1918)
- The Garden of Krakonos (Krakonosova zahrada) with brother Josef (1918)
- The Outlaw (Loupeznik) (1920)
- A Critique of Words (Kritika slov)(1920)
- R.U.R. - Rossum's Universal Robots (1920) [ read | download ]
- Painful Stories (Trapne povidky) (1921)
- The Insect Play (ze zivota hmyzu) along with brother Josef (1921)
- The Fateful Game of Love (Lasky hra osudna) with brother Josef (1922)
- The Absolute at Large (Tovarna na absolutno) (1922)
- The Makropulos Secret (Vec Makropulos) (1922)
- translation: Moliere Sganarelle with the translator O. Fischer
- Letters from Italy (Italske listy) (1923)
- Krakatit (1924)
- Letters from England (Anglicke listy) (1924)
- How a Theater Play Comes About and The Guide to The Back Stage (Jak vznika divadelni hra aneb pruvodce po zakulisi) 1 chapter from Josef (1925)
- Intimate Things (O nejblizsich vecech) (1925)
- Adam the Creator (Adam Stovritel) along with bother Josef (1927)
- The Scandalous Affair of Josef Holousek (Skandalni afera Josefa Holouska) (1927)
- President Masaryk Tells His Story part 1: The Age of Youth (Hovory s T.G.M.: cast prvni Vek One Pocket (Povidky z jedne kapsy) (1928)
- Tales From The Other Pocket (Povidky z druhe kapsy) (1928)
- The Gardener's Year (Zahradnikuv rok) (1928)
- Letters from Spain (Vylet do Spanel) (1930)
- President Masaryk Tells His Story part 2: Life and Work(Hovory s T.G.M.: cast druha Zivot a prace) (1931)
- In Praise of Newspapers (Marsyas aneb na okraji sveta literatury) (1931)
- Fairy Tales(Devatero pohadek) (1932)
- Letters from Holland (Obrazky z Holandska) (1932)
- The Apocryphal Stories (Apokryfy) (1932)
- On Political Matters or Zoon Politikon (O vecech obecnych cili Zoon politikon) (1932)
- Dasenka: The Life of a Puppy (Dasenka cili zivot stenete) (1933)
- Hordubal (1933)
- Povetron (1934)
- An Ordinary Life (Obycejny zivot) (1934)
- President Masaryk Tells His Story part 3: Thinking and Life (Hovory s T.G.M.: cast treti Mysleni a zivot) (1935)
- Being silent with T. G. Masaryk (Mlceni s T.G.M.) (1935)
- The War With The Newts (Valka s mloky) (1936) [ read | download ]
- Travels in the North (Cesta na Sever) (1936)
- translation of French Poetry (1936)
- The White Plague (Bila nemoc) (1937)
- How The Newspaper Is Made (Jak se delaji noviny) (1937)
- The First Rescue Party (Prvni parta) (1937)
- The Mother (Matka) (1938)
- How Things Are Done (Jak se co dela) (1938)
Works published posthumously by Miroslav Halik:
- The Cheat (Zivot a dilo skladatele Foltyna) - unfinished (1939)
- I Had a Dog and a Cat (1939)
- Calendar (1940)
- About People (1940)
- The Book of Apocryphs (1945)
- Bajky a podpovidky (1946)
