LANGER, FRANTIEK

born March 3, 1888, Prague died Aug. 2, 1965, Prague physician and writer, one of the outstanding Czech dramatists of the interwar period. Langer studied medicine in Prague and wrote a collection of short stories and two unsuccessful plays before joining the Austrian army as a surgeon. Sent to the Galician front during World War I, he was taken prisoner by the Russians (1916) and subsequently joined the Czechoslovak Legion, which fought the Communists in the Russian Civil War. After the war, he served in the medical corps of the Czech army and continued his literary career. Langer achieved his greatest success with Velbloud uchem jehly (1923; The Camel Through the Needle's Eye), a comedy about lower-class life. Periferie (1925; The Outskirts), a psychological drama, deals with a murderer who is frustrated in his attempts to be legally condemned. Of his later writing, only Jzdn hldka (1935; The Cavalry Watch) compared with his earlier successes; it was based upon his experiences with the legion. Langer went to England in 1939 and did not return to his home until after World War II; he retired from the army with the rank of general. The postwar Communist government did not allow him to publish new work until the late 1950s.