Original 1925 pencil portrait caricature by the the Czechoslovakian caricaturist Oscar Berger of one of the most influential Czech writers of the 20th century who introduced and made popular the word ‘robot,’ which first appeared in his 1921 play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots). In the 1930s, his work focused on the threat of brutal national socialist and fascist dictatorships and he refused to leave his country – despite the fact that the Nazi Gestapo had named him Czechoslovakia's "public enemy number two." He died at the age of 48 from pneumonia, his brother, the painter and writer Josef Capek, deported by the Nazis and killed at Bergen-Belsen shortly thereafter. The portrait measuring 7.25 x 10.75 inches, boldly signed at the bottom center by Capek and by the artist, lower right. Rather wrinkled but otherwise fine. A rare signed portrait.