Karel Čapek (pronounce [ˈkarɛl ˈtʃapɛk] (help·info)) (January 9, 1890 – December 25, 1938) was one of the most influential Czech writers of the 20th century, and a Nobel Prize nominee (1936). He introduced and made popular the frequently used international word robot, which first appeared in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) in 1921. Karel named his brother Josef Čapek as the true inventor of the word robot.