Josef Čapek (1887–1945)
Author of R.U.R. and The Insect Play (Oxford Paperbacks)
About the Author
Image credit: Josef Capek
Works by Josef Čapek
All About Doggie and Pussycat: How They Kept House and All Sorts of Other Things As Well (1929) 92 copies
Povidejme si, deti 8 copies
Adam the Creator 4 copies
Histoires de chien et de chat : Sur la façon dont ils vivaient ensemble et sur bien d'autres choses encore (2008) 2 copies
O sobě 2 copies
Rodné krajiny 2 copies
Umění přírodních národů 1 copy
Publicistika 2 1 copy
Oheň a touha 1 copy
Ledacos : feuilletony 1 copy
Povídejmesi, děti 1 copy
Husaion V. 1 copy
Modre Debe 1 copy
Histoire de la lettre que le chat et le chien écrivirent à leurs amies les petites filles (2018) 1 copy
Rodné krajiny 1 copy
Kam odešly lané 1 copy
Zářivé hlubiny a jiné prosy 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Čapek, Josef
- Legal name
- Čapek, Josef
- Birthdate
- 1887-03-23
- Date of death
- 1945-04
- Burial location
- Vyšehrad cemetery, Prague, Czech Republic (symbolic grave)
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- Czech Republic
- Birthplace
- Hronov, Bohemia (Austria-Hungary, now Czech Republic)
- Place of death
- Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
- Places of residence
- Prague, Czechoslovakia
Paris, France - Education
- Academie Colarossi, Paris
School of Applied Arts, Prague, Czech Republic - Occupations
- painter
illustrator
essayist
playwright
novelist
translator (show all 10)
poet
graphic artist
children's book illustrator
children's book author - Relationships
- Čapek, Karel (brother)
Čapek, Karel & Josef (gestalt entity)
Poláček, Karel (friend) - Short biography
- Josef Čapek was born in Hronov, Bohemia, then in Austria-Hungary, later Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic. His younger brother was Karel Čapek. In 1890, the family moved to Úpice, where Josef was unsuccessful at school, although his artistic talent was noted. Later he went to a German-speaking vocational school for weaving in Vrchlabí. After graduating in 1903, he worked for a year in a factory. In 1904, he moved to Prague, where he studied at the School of Applied Arts and met his future wife, Jarmila Pospíšilová. He went to Paris in 1910 to attend the Colarossi Academy. When his brother came to visit, they wrote the first draft of the play Loupežník (The Robber) together. He collaborated with Karel on a number of other plays and short stories, the most famous of which was Ze života hmyzu (The World We Live In/The Insect Play), premiered in 1922. Independently, Josef wrote the utopian play Země mnoha jmen (Land of Many Names) and several novels, as well as essays. He was named by his brother as the true inventor of the term "robot." As a painter of the Cubist school, Josef Čapek developed his own playful, minimalist style. His illustrated collection of stories Povídání o Pejskovi a Kočičce (English translation, The Adventures of Puss and Pup, 1975), first published in 1927, is a beloved classic of Czech children's literature. He worked for 18 years as a cartoonist, editor, and art critic for Lidové noviny, a daily newspaper in Prague. Due to his pointed criticism of Nazism, Josef was arrested by the Gestapo after the German invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939 and deported to the concentration camps at Dachau and Buchenwald, where he spent two and a half years. In 1942, he was transferred to Sachsenhausen, where he secretly wrote a long poem dedicated to Karel, translated English, Spanish, and Norwegian poetry, and made small pencil drawings. In February 1945, he was sent to Bergen-Belsen, where he wrote Poems from a Concentration Camp (published posthumously). He died during a typhus epidemic at the camp. In the decades since his death, several short films, television productions, and a feature film have been produced based on Josef Čapek's work. These include The Shadow of the Ferns (based on the novel Stín kapradiny), released in 1986.
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Statistics
- Works
- 58
- Also by
- 4
- Members
- 406
- Popularity
- #59,889
- Rating
- 4.1
- Reviews
- 5
- ISBNs
- 59
- Languages
- 10