Karel Čapek

Born in Malé Svatoňovice in 1890, Karel Čapek became one of the most important Czech writers of the 20th century. He worked as a novelist, playwright, journalist, critic, and essayist, and he also collaborated at times with his brother Josef Čapek, an artist and writer.

He is especially remembered for R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), the 1920 play that popularized the word robot, and for works such as War with the Newts. His writing ranged from science fiction and satire to travel writing and newspaper columns, but across genres he returned to questions about technology, power, freedom, and everyday human responsibility.

In the 1930s, as authoritarianism spread across Europe, his work grew more openly political and warned against fanaticism and dehumanization. He died in Prague on December 25, 1938, but his clear, lively style and sharp moral imagination have kept his books widely read ever since.