This account of President Masaryk's life was taken from his own lips and set down in his own words by Karel Capek. The chapters were not told consecutively as they are given here; they have been built up from material gathered by Capek during several years of intercourse with the President. For weeks at a time Capek stayed with President Masaryk and his family in their charming country house at Topolcanky, in Slovakia; and in the course of talks on summer days in the fields, beside a bonfire in the evenings, on quiet afternoons in the rose-covered summer-house, or on picnics which the whole family joined, he learned the facts, events and theories which he has woven into this book. This early work by Karel Capek was originally published in 1924 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography.

Translated by Dora Round Tomas Garrigue Masaryk (1850-1937) was a philosophy professor who became the founder and first president of Czechoslovakia (1918-1935) and was a leading figure in world affairs between the wars. Capek, author of 'War with the Newts', and Czechoslovakia's most prominent writer during these years, interviewed Masaryk at great length and produced this volume that tells Masaryk's unique story.