Bio: Kafka's writing attracted little attention until after his death. His writings are noted for their dark tone and themes of alienation and persecution. Kafka's most famous works include the short stories The Metamorphosis, A Hunger Artist, and novels The Trial, Amerika, and The Castle.

Kafka was born July 3, 1883, into a middle class Prague Jewish family. He received his law degree in 1906 and went to work for an insurance agency. Kafka began writing on the side. In 1917 he began to suffer from tuberculosis, which would require frequent convalescence during which he was supported by his family. Kafka's relationship with his domineering father is an important theme in his writing. In 1923 Kafka briefly moved to Berlin in hopes of distancing himself from his family's influence and concentrating on his writing. His tuberculosis worsened; he returned to Prague, then went to a sanitorium near Vienna for treatment, where he died on June 3, 1924. His body was brought back to Prague where he was buried June 11, 1924. Kafka had published only a few short stories during his life, a small part of his work; after Kafka's death his friend and literary executor Max Brod saw to the publication of much more of it, even works that Kafka had in his will designated to be destroyed.