Jaroslav Hašek (Prague, 1883 - Lipnice nad Sázavou, 1923) was a novelist and journalist, author of countless articles and short stories published under a pseudonym. Between 1921 and 1923 he published in installments in the press The Fates of the Good Soldier Švejk during the World War, a work in which he elaborated a good part of his experiences in the Great War and which was incomplete because of his premature death. Book Four was posthumously completed by a friend of the author, the Czech writer Karel Van? K.