Karel Čapek

January 9, 1890 – December 25, 1938 · Writer · Czech Republic

“He gave the world the robot”

Novelist, playwright, and journalist whose 1920 play R.U.R. introduced the word "robot" to the world, and whose humane, witty prose defined Czech literature between the wars.

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Their story

Karel Čapek was born in 1890 in Malé Svatoňovice in northeastern Bohemia, the son of a country doctor. He studied philosophy in Prague, Berlin, and Paris before becoming a journalist at the Prague daily Lidové noviny, where he perfected the short, conversational column. Writing often alongside his brother, the painter Josef Čapek, he became the most versatile Czech author of his generation.

His 1920 play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) gave the world the word "robot", coined by his brother Josef, and made Čapek famous far beyond Czechoslovakia. Works such as The Insect Play, the novel War with the Newts, and the drama The White Disease used fantasy and satire to warn against dehumanization, dictatorship, and the gathering threat of fascism in Europe.

A close friend of President Masaryk and a devoted democrat, Čapek watched the Munich Agreement of 1938 dismantle his country. Worn down and vilified by fascist sympathizers, he died of pneumonia on Christmas Day 1938, months before the Nazi occupation. Nominated repeatedly for the Nobel Prize, he left a legacy as the gentle prophet of the machine age.

A life in moments

1890
Born on 9 January in Malé Svatoňovice, Bohemia, then part of Austria-Hungary.
1917
Began his lifelong career as a journalist, later joining the daily Lidové noviny.
1920
Wrote R.U.R., the play that introduced the word "robot" to the world.
1936
Published War with the Newts, his satirical masterpiece warning against totalitarianism.
1938
Died of pneumonia on 25 December in Prague, shortly after the Munich Agreement.
Today
His word "robot" is spoken in every language, and his warnings about technology and tyranny still resonate.