Author Information - Eulogy

“”I need solitude for my writing; not like a ‘hermit’ - that wouldn’t be enough - but like a dead man.” 


       One word that could never not be attributed to Kafka is ‘dedication’. He lived, breathed, and believed in writing... and did everything to fulfill his destiny that was his words.

Posthumously becoming popular for his writings, he never got to see the appreciation that countless people have for him. Having died early, He never got to experience life as an accomplished author. Throughout his whole life, he worked other jobs in order to pay his bills and allowing him to nurture his writing habits. He quit his job in 1908 at an insurance company, because he felt that he wasn’t getting enough time to write. But, as everyone knows. one needs money to live. Kafka quickly found another job at an accident insurance institute, to which he became a diligent worker that was extremely capable, even though he claimed to hate the job.

Sadly, his family life didn’t hold much more of a draw to him than his job. He was born into a middle-class German-speaking Jewish family, with his father being Hermann and his mother Julie. His father was a boisterous, loud, obnoxious man who completely fulfilled the ‘Kafka’ name in Franz’s eyes. Their family had many misfortunes with children, however, for two of their youngest boys died in early life, leaving Franz the eldest of three sisters. As the oldest, he was personally responsible for helping the countless nannies and governesses that the family employed.

Kafka helped as much as he could, but getting an education was important to him and his family. He was fluent in Czech, although he never wrote in it, but instead chose to stick with his native German. He attended various German schools throughout his educational career, but chose to not further his Jewish education. He completely despised going to the synagogue, and hated having a Bar Mitzvah once he became of age. Completing his exams in 1901, he continued on to the Charles-Ferdinand University of Prague with the intent to study Chemistry, but then switching to law after two weeks. He became close to some colleagues there, including Max Brod who would become a lifelong friend to Kafka. Sticking with law, he received his degree of Doctor of Law on June 18th, 1906.

After all of his education was over, he was fully dedicated to his writing. However, in 1912, he met Felice Bauer and began a five year on-again off-again relationship with her, with them almost getting married twice. Kafka finally broke it off, and a few years later had a string of other women he went with. Throughout his different romances, around the mid 1920’s, he discovered he had tuberculosis. He moved back home for more treatment but ended up dying of starvation on June 3rd, 1924 in austria at the age of 40. 

Once he died, he gave all of his books and personal writings to his friend Max Brod, with specific instructions to destroy them. Brod, however, had other plans. He was given over 20 notebooks, original book manuscripts, and 35 letters Kafka had written in his lifetime. Most of his writings weren’t finished, as well as his book ‘The Castle’. Brod took the liberty to finish these for him.

Kafka will be forever idealized as an amazing writer, however he had many little quirks that were not very known. He was thought to suffer from a schizoid personality disorder, which is an extremely rare trait to be found in authors. This, they believe, is attributed to some of his rather off-the-wall and eerily bizarre ideas that are prevalent in certain aspects of his books. His writing was exceptionally unique, and will forever be etched in history as one of the greatest literary minds.