Authors

Czech · 1890–1938

Karel Čapek

Karel Čapek was a Czech writer who coined the word 'robot' in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots, 1920) — from the Czech robota, meaning drudgery. His science fiction and satirical works, including the novel War with the Newts (1936) and the play The White Disease (1937), were prescient warnings against totalitarianism written as fascism rose around him. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize seven times. He died of pneumonia on Christmas Day 1938 — the Gestapo arrived to arrest him two days later.