Welcome to the Karel Capek website!

   This site presents a biography, book excerpts, list of works, photos and more of the most important Czech writer of the first half of the 20th century, the co-inventor of the word robot, a novelist, playwright, journalist and translator.
   Check out all the sections of the this site and don't forget to take a look at the links section as it features some great sources of photographs and information.
   Feel free to enter your thoughts in the guestbook or to e-mail me.

News

• An unpleasant mistake found on the page "Interesting facts" was corrected. Josef Capek died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April 1945 and not in the Terezin concentration camp as I incorrectly stated before. I wish to thank Gyula Bognar, Jr. for alerting me about this fact. I apologize for this unfortunate error.

• The "Opilec" controversy has been finally sorted out. A scan of the 1925 version of Josef Capek's short story shows clearly that Josef used the word "automat" in his writing. Click here to learn more.

• Broken links repaired.

• Some precisions have been added on the question of the creation of the word robot. Thank you to a visitor from Madrid for notifying me.
• The English version of Capek's famous 1924 essay "Why I am not a Communist" has been added to the website.

• A summary of the play The Mother is online.

• A summary of the play The White Plague is online.

• There is now a french version of this site.

• English titles of Capek's works have been reviewed.
• Links have been updated.

• More information on RUR and the origin of the word "robot" and a new biography have been added.

• More historical background on the creation of the word "robot" by Karel Capek has been added. This english section of the site gets about 15 visitors a week.

• A review of The Gardener's Year has been added to the website. You can now download Capek's speech in the MP3 format. Greatly enlarged photo section.

• The complete drama RUR in which the word "robot" was used for the first time is now available online in an English translation.

• A comprehensive presentation on Karel Capek - a great starter has been added.

• So here I write again - after a year and a half. I didn't have much time to enlarge the Czech version, let alone translate more documents into English. I will however try my best to improve the standing situation and present more of Capek's work in English.

• So far the English version of this site has only a few translated documents: the biography, a list of the works of Karel Capek, some photos and a few translated book summaries. Please be patient while I translate the rest.
• Don't hesitate to sign my guestbook or email me with your questions or comments, I will be glad to answer.