Josef Capek Illustrator & Author

Josef Capek (1887–1945) was a Czech writer, painter, illustrator, and one of the leading figures of Czech modernism. The elder brother of Karel Capek, he collaborated with him while also establishing himself as a major artist and author in his own right. Arrested by the Nazis for his anti-fascist views, he died in a concentration camp shortly before the end of the Second World War. Geoffrey Chew is emeritus professor of music at Royal Holloway, University of London, and has previously taught at the University of Aberdeen and the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, as well as the Institute of Musicology at Masaryk University in Brno. As a translator of Czech literature, he has published two selections of short stories, And My Head Exploded: Tales of Desire, Delirium and Decadence from Fin-de-Siècle Prague and Beyond the World of Men: Women’s Fiction at the Czech Fin de Siècle, as well as Karel Hynek Mácha’s Gypsies.