Description

A book in Serbian language is dedicated to a Czech author and illustrator Karel Čapek, who died died on the Christmas day 1938. The intimate introductions were written by three Serbian authors:

– A poem The Song for my Deceased Father and for a Dead Friend Karel Čapek was written by Žarko Vasiljević (1892—1946), a Serbian author and director of Novi Sad theater, who dedicated most of his poetry to Vojvodina.

– Krešimir Georgijević (1907-1975), a Croatia-born professor of literature at the Belgrade university, who knew Čapek during his studies in Prague.

– Niko Bartulović (1890-1943) was a Croatian Dalmatian author, translator, and intellectual from a noble family. During WWII he entered the pro-Yugoslav king, anti-Communist Chetnik army and was killed in 1943. 

Karel Čapek is today one of the most popular Czech authors. He is noted in the pop culture as the author, who has first used the word robot in a publication. In the central Europe and former Yugoslavia Karel Čapek is known as a house name for the children’s novels, stories and cartoons, enjoyed by generations. In the 1930s Karel Čapek, a poweful public figure, was an open Nazi and Communist opponent and was known in Germany as “the public enemy number two”. After the German invasion upon Czechoslovakia the Nazis were not aware of the Karel’s death and came to his house to arrest him. They arrested his wife, the actress and author Olga Scheinpflugová (1902–1968), and eventually his brother Josef, who was also Karl’s life-long friend, co-writer an illustrator. Joseph, who is today known as one of the most famous Czech authors of the 20th century perished in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.  The cover design was made by Pjer Križanić (1890-1962), a Croatia-born caricaturist, who became one of most famous political caricaturists of Yugoslavia, working for mostly Belgrade-based political newspapers. 

Worldcat records two or three examples of the book (Philosophical Faculty in Ljubljana (repeating the same entry through COBISS), and one or two examples at University of California, Los Angeles).

Referencs: OCLC 320068764; Martin Kaminski, in: Hrvatski biografski leksikon. BARTULOVIĆ, Niko (1983).