Čapek, Karel

Čapek, Karel (1890-1938), Czech novelist, playwright, and theatrical producer, born in Malé Svatoňovice, and educated at the University of Prague. Čapek was a close friend of the first Czech president, Tomáš Masaryk, with whom he worked to preserve the Czech nation after World War I. Simultaneously Čapek was an editor for a Prague newspaper, founder and director of the Vinohradsky Art Theatre in Prague, and political essayist, playwright, and novelist.

Čapek is best known for his plays, the most famous of which is R.U.R. (1921; trans. 1923), a dramatic fantasy in which people are dehumanized by the machine age. R.U.R. stands for “Rossum's Universal Robots” and is the source of the English word robot. Čapek is also well known for two other dramas: The Insect Play (1921; trans. 1923), a satire that foretells the evils of totalitarianism; and Power and Glory (1937; trans. 1938), an attack on dictatorship. His novels include fanciful romances, science fiction, and a philosophical trilogy. Čapek also wrote travel sketches and impassioned political essays.