Karen Capekis widely considered the greatest Czech author of the first half of the twentieth century. A novelist, short-story writer, playwright, and essayist, he was a strong dissident voice during the period of fascist buildup in Europe between the World Wars. Most famous for his playR.U.R., which coined the word “robot,” he wrote a number of satires, as well as the utopian fantasy novelWar with the Newts. He died in 1938. Michael Pollanis the author of theNew York TimesbestsellerThe Botany of DesireandSecond Nature, named one of the best gardening books of the twentieth century by the American Horticultural Society. He is a contributing editor toHarper’smagazine and a… contributing writer atThe New York Times Magazine. Pollan chose the books for the Modern Library Gardening series because, as he writes, “these writers are some of the great talkers in the rich, provocative, and frequently uproarious conversation that, metaphorically at least, has been taking place over the back fence of our gardens at least since the time of Pliny.”