Rare London loan: Čapek’s Letters from England, signed by WWII paratroopers, on display in Prague
The Museum of Literature in Prague is hosting a powerful new exhibition—centred around a remarkable item on loan from London. At its heart is a rare English edition of Karel Čapek’s Letters from England, signed and dedicated in the autumn of 1941 by twenty Czechoslovak parachute trainees in the UK. Among them was Jan Kubiš, one of the men who would later carry out the assassination of Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich.
The exhibition at the Museum of Literature began on Tuesday, May 27, at exactly 10:31 a.m.—the precise time of Heydrich’s assassination in 1942. The moment was marked by the sound of bagpipes, a tribute to the Scottish training grounds where the Czech soldiers, including Jan Kubiš, prepared for their mission under the British Special Operations Executive.
As a gesture of gratitude to their commanding officer, Lieutenant Ernest Van Maurik, the soldiers gifted him the English edition of Čapek’s Letters from England, chronicling his travels in the United Kingdom. The book had first appeared in 1925 as a series in The Manchester Guardian, just five months after its Czech release. Later in life, Van Maurik donated the signed copy to the Imperial War Museums in London. This is the first time the original volume has been exhibited in Czechia.
Michal Stehlík, director of the Museum of Literature, says it’s a unique cultural moment:
“I think it's an extraordinary moment for our history. We often commemorate the assassination of Heydrich with military displays—such as guns and other items belonging to soldiers. But this—linking the assassination with Karel Čapek, with Letters from England, with literature and culture—brings a very special dimension for Czech visitors.
“In one small book, there's a huge story. It’s about bravery, culture, and connection. Karel Čapek, our soldiers in Britain, and their future role in the resistance—it’s all in there.”
But why did these young soldiers—many of them not exactly intellectuals—choose this particular book as a gift? Zdeněk Vacek, head of the Karel Čapek Memorial in Stará Huť, offers an answer:
“I think it fits with how Čapek saw himself—not just as a playwright or journalist, but as a cultural ambassador for Czechoslovakia and its democratic values in the western world, especially in Britain, which he loved deeply.
“Even in his final days in December 1938, Čapek made it clear that for him, Britain stood for everything good—its culture, its people, its traditions. Not politics, not Chamberlain—but the real spirit of the country. He was also the first president of the Czechoslovak PEN Club.
“I believe he’d be proud of his fellow countrymen—that they stood where he could no longer stand, and carried forward what he could no longer finish.”
The original volume will be on display for just five days, after which a high-quality replica will take its place. The exhibition also features original Čapek illustrations from Letters from England, anti-war manuscripts such as War with the Newts, The White Disease, and Mother, along with various international editions of Letters from England.
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