Letters from Karel Čapekand other Czech writers

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Citation Součková, Milada. 1959. Letters from Karel Čapek and other Czechwriters. Harvard Library Bulletin XIII (3), Autumn 1959: 471-474.

Citable link https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37363797

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Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XIII, Number 3 (Autumn1959)

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Letters from Karel Capek a11d Other Czech Writers

RECENT acquisition of the Harvard College Library· is a collec-tion of letters addressed to Paul Seiver, chiefly fro1n ~zech , v ri ters of the I ate nineteen t11 and ear 1 r er t, ven tieth ccn tur ies .. i".1 ost irn p ortan t a1n on g the score of pieces in the collection

arc single letters fron1 Josef Svstopluk 1\1achar ( 1864-1942), Antonin Sova ( 1864-1928), Otakar Brezina. ( 1868-1929)., and, of special sig-nificance, four Jetters f ro1n Karel Capek ( 1890-193 8).

As a man of ]etters Paul Seiver ( 1888- ) has perhaps enjoyed a greater rcputatio n in Czechoslovakia th an in his o,vn country_. Though kno,vn in England as poet J novelist, and essayist, for the Cz~chs he has been the f ricnd and propagator of their literature in th.c English-spcak-jng countries. Already before '''orld v\lar I he ,vas specializing in Slavjc literatures and contributed jn this field to the Ti111es JJiternry Supple1ue11t. Through his anthologies, of ,vhich he ,va~ both editor and translator., he advanced the sparse kno,vledge of Slavic poetry· in the ,,, est Front 191 8, the year of the f ound-a.tion of the Czechoslovak Re-public> he jdentificd hi1nsclf 1nore particularly ,vith Czech cultural affairs. Officially he ,vas translator at the Czech Embassy in London, u no fli ci al I y he , v as an1 bass ad or of Czcc hosl ovak , v r i tcrs to the English peop]e. l--ie translated Benes, mc1noirs of \1/orld \,lar I ( 1927 )., pub-lished an essay on Brezina ( 192.1), compiled an anthology A1odern Czech I'oetrJ· (19zo)., ,vrote a biography of T. G. l\1asaryk ( 1940), and translated Hasek>s Or11dy dohrebo vojaka svejka za y.;etove valky as Tbe Good Soldier SclY2.veik ( r920). A11 these activitic~ had n con1-mon ·aim: the fostering of a kno,vlcdge and understanding of Czecho-.s lova k cu 1 ture as revealed in its history and li tCI'a n1 re.

The Jetters addressed to Selvcr by Brezina, !vlachar., and Sova are concerned ,vith anthologies of Sclver's: those of Brezina ( 1913) and ]Vlachar ( 1914) refer to Au Anthology of A1odern llobc1niau Poetry ( 191 z)., and that of Sova ( 192. 1) to Antbology of A1odern Sl(n)onic Literature ( 1919) 4 In these letters the poets express their appreciation to the promoter of their poetry abroad. ~1achar\~ letter epiton1izcs the Czech scntin1cnt to,vard Sclvcr: 'During )"Our v-isit in Prague you n1ust

47 1

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XIII, Number 3 (Autumn1959)

47 2 Ifarvard Library Bulletin have felt the affection coming to you from all parts of the countf) 7 /

Sclver's o,vn regard for these ackno\v-ledgments of his \vork is .sug-gested by the evidence aU three letters bear of having been framed. The ornamental penmanship of the Brezina letter, ,vith its 2rab esg ues, ,v ell reflects u 1 i tcrar y 3ttitu de charged ,vi th de cora ti ve s yn1 b o li sm that ,vas characteristic of Brezina' s poetry-4 The letters of J\1a char and Sova give much less evidence of the personality of their ,vr~ter.s: j\1achar is to be idenrHied \Vith the Czech realistic n1ovement and Sova ,vith Czech

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1111 press1on1s rn. Sc Iver, arnbasador of Czechos1 ovak culture, a ppcar.s o nt\vardly to be

,vithout personal predilection fur any-single Czech ,vritcr or period. The figure most congenial to him, ho,vever 1 seems to have been Karel Capek, ,vhose literary idio1n, he found, could be transposed into English \Vith outstanding success4 Selver trans]ated Capek~s plays and essays-~ and ,vas instrumental in -arranging contacts for him ,vith English pub-lishers and nc,vspapcrs.

The first three 1 Cttcrs f IOil] Ca pc k' ,v r i teen f rotn Pra guc in the fa 11 0 f 1924, shed important light on Capek's English vcnrurct particu12rly ,vhen seen against the background of his gen era l position as a ,v riter at this tin1c. He "\Vas by no,v ,vcll kno,vn 011tsidc his o,vn countI) 7 : in January 192.1 had occurred the preu1iete of R. U. 1{. (Ross1111ls Uni-r-oersttl Robots),, the play that has given the ,vorld the by no,v indispens-able \vord 'robot., In the early nvcnties had appeared also Ze zh)ota b1nyzu (Tbe Life of tbe Insects), \vritten ,vith his brother Josef, and his novel-fantasies Tovarna na absolutno (Tbe Absolute at L-arge) and l(rnkfltit, the latter concerned ,vith atomic po,ver.

Th c three letters to Sel ver of J 92 4 center about Ca pck ,s Anglic ke Jisty (Letters fro'ln England), ,vrittcn during his visit earlier that ycat. They reveal Capek as an author ,vho has achieved his £rst intcrn~tional success; they speak a professional language, but with no diminution of ere a tivc enc h usiasn1. The A 11 g 1i ck e Ii sty had first a p pcnrcd · as a series, \· 1tith jHustrations by· the author~ in the Prague daily~ Lidove 11oviuy, to ,vhich Capek ,vas an important contributor. In his first Jetter to Selvcr, 1 o September T 924,. he encloses proofs of thirteen of these Hlustrations -and offers to send the plates if they ,vould be useful for English publica-tion of the Listy 1 so111c of ,vhich ,vcrc already scheduled to appear in the A1ancbester Guardian~ The fo11o'-ving year Capek ha(i the satjsfac-tion of seeing the letters appear in English in hook fonn, ,vith his-o,vn illustrations, and translated by Paul Sclvcr4

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XIII, Number 3 (Autumn1959)

Letters fro111 Capek and Otber Czecb U1riters 47 3 T n this san1 c I c tter to Sel ver Ca pck inquires about the sales of T be

Life of tbe Insects and touches briefly upon the subject of translation and publication of t\VO other plays, V ec A1nkrop!llos (The A1akropou-lor Secret) ~nd Ze1ne 111110/Ja j-111e11 (The J_..((nd of -Ai any N au1cs), both of ,vhich later duly appeared jn F...,nglish~ the latter in Selver transla-tion.

It lvas not entirely· by pure literary ch-ance that Capek1s ,vorks ,vere ,vell received in the English-speaking ,vorld, for Capek ,va.s one of the very fe,v n1odcrn Czechoslovak \Vriters-familiar ,vith the thought :and literature of England und America. His doctoral thesis at Charles Uni-versity, Prague, published in 191 81 ,vas entitled Prag1natiSJ;u1s, a.nd djs-cussed the philosophy of., a1nong othcrsi Charles Peirce, '''illiarn James., and John Dc\vey. In Capek's fonnu]ation. ptagmatis111 n1cant a con-fidence in en1pirical cxpcrience 1 -an optin1istic humanism., and a dislike of rhetoric. To this intellectual or i en ta tion he rc1nain c d faithful except in his very last , v or ks. He also had strong 1i tcrary sy 111 pa thi es , vi th so1ne of his conten1poraries on the English side of the Channel~ dur-jng his visit to England he met such ,vritet's as Chesterton~ '''eHs~ nnd Sha,,\ ,vhom he held in high rcgardJ and sketched their personalitjc.s, both vcrba11y and graphically 1 in the Anglicke listy.

In the second letter to Selver., 30 October 19z4, Capcki encouraged by the reception of the Listy published in the Guardian and by the prospect of .seeing the entire serjes soon as an Eng]ish book, n1akes a ne\v proposirjon: he ,viH continue to send articles that may seem appropriate for the English rcad~r. Since Sclvcr regularly secs Lidove noviu.y, ,vhere Capckls 2rticlcs are appearing~ he can assist in the selection. As th c first of such articl cs~ and with a vi c, v to its possib I e pub} ica ti on in the A1anchester Gu(lrdian Weekly, Capek proposes 'Holmesiana, or about Detective Stories4, This essay., duly-published in the Tf7 eekly, revea 1 s b o, v close] y a.lli c d j ts- :i u th or ,vas to c~rtain trends in Eng 1 ish literary taste.

'~'hen Ca pck ,vas ,v riting the third I etter to Seiver, s N oven1ber r924t he had in his hands Sclvcr's n1unuscript translation of the Auglicke listy. This occasions remarks on the difficulty of transposing idion1atic expressions from one language to another and on certain tech-nicalities of translation. At tl1e end of his Jetter he ,vrites that he has started to read Selver's novel - presu1nab}y Scboolingt published in October., 1924.

These Erst three letters to Seiver are closely related by date, subjecti

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XIII, Number 3 (Autumn1959)

474 Harvard Library Bulletin . and circ111n~tance. ~fhe fourth Jetter ,vas sent from Prague to England eleven years lurer, 12 November 193 5, ,vhen the situatio111 both ,vithin and ,vithout Czechoslovakia, had entirely changed. Even Capck,s hand-\Y ri ting is cliff eren t4 In those c kv en yea.rs I{ a rel Capek h~ d a chi eve d a pron1inencc and a personal prestige rare in his o,vn country.. I~Iis Hovory s T .. G .. Aiasn.ryke11r (President Airrsaryk Tells His Story; 19z8), 1narked the apex of his fan1e and popul-arity at hon1e .. Fron1 this period., the ,niddle 193o"s., contes this Jast Jetter, only five lines Jong., in ,vhich he infor1ns Seiver, perhaps in ans\"vcr to an inquiry., that he does not intend to ,vritc his autobiography as yet: in his op~nion the 1nos.t interesting )rear~ and events of his life still lie ahead .. But in son1e t\venty or thirty years he n1igh t reconsider tl 1 e ,v ho le m n.ttcr ..

Of course, at this ti1nc Capek ,vas only· forty~fivc, and far fro111 ready to sun1 up his life~ Y cc~ ,vithout his kno,vingt time ,vas gro,ving short for hin1. T,vo years before., Hitler had sho,vn his political po,ver. Capek's ardent protest against tutalitarianistn, Bila 11en1oc (Tbe lf 1bite PJngue, 1937 ), ,vas not yet ,vritten, nor ,Yas 111.atkcr (The 1~1otber, r938), an outcry for the defense of his country. He lived only a fc,v months after its pre1niere, dring of pneu1nonia on Chrisnnas Day., 1938 (the Seiver co1lection contains a printed announcc1ncnt of his death)~ hut long enough to see the collapse of everything he .stood for .. In the 1ight of the fateful events of the years in1111cdiatcly f oHo,ving~ Capek~s letter of 193 5 is charged ,vith dran1atic iron)r~ And in this light, too., the collection acquired by the Harvard Jjbrary has a sin1ilar sig-nificance - that of 2 document of C7.;ech literature at the 1no1nent ,vhen it reached out for recognition in the English-speaking V.7est.

i\11 LAOA SoucKov A.

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XIII, Number 3(Autumn 1959)

List of Con tri bu tors

H F.kilF.R'f Ilu·r-n-:1t.F1 r;Ltl, , 7ice~Chrince1lor of the University of Can1bridgc, J\1astcr of PeterhouseJ and Profes~or of j\iJodern History

G. L. HuxLEY, Fello\v of All Sou]i, Oxford

D !\NIEL L. l\1:cCuE., JR., Assi~tnn t Professor of Eng 1 is h, Boston Co 11 cg c

G EOl~GE H "'\V ltLlA 1\1 s., lV j n n Prof cssor of Ecc] esi astic:al 1-l istory., Ha rY nrd Uni-+ ,Ters1ty

Ho\VARD l\1u1\JFORD J o~r.s~ Professor of Eng1ish~ Harvard University

Sru A RT A TK 1Ns1 Prof cssor of G crm ani Harvard Uni vcr.si ty j\1ADJSON C. BATES, Professor of Eng 1 is h., En1cr j n1s, R utg c::rs Un ivcrsi c y J\11r.AbA Sou~~OVAi Siav-jc Divjsioni Harvard College J_.ibrary \V1LLL\t\1 A. JACKSON., Professor of Bjbiiography 1 I-larva.rd University., and Li-

brarian of the 1--Ioughton Library of the 1-Iarvard Co1Iege Library

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