"Splendor forever lies in wait about each one of us in all its fullness, but veiled from view, deep down, invisible, far off. It is there, though, not hostile, not reluctant, not deaf. If you summon it by the right word, by its right name, it will come. This is the essence of magic, which does not create, but summons." --Franz Kafka, Diaries, October 18, 1921

The Magical Mystery Literary History Tour was aptly named. Beginning the first day and culminating the last one, the Kafka Project's mission in Eastern Europe has been smiled on by the mysterious forces that moved me to undertake it. As I compile the results of the research for a final report, I'd like to tell you about only two of the forty days: the first and the last. Then you tell me if you think magic is afoot! 

We left San Diego on June 15 (see Episode #1 Magical Literary History Tour) and landed in Prague the next day, June 16. When we arrived at our hotel, Judita Matyasova, an impish 29-year old Czech woman with her own Franz Kafka project, was waiting for me with a reporter from a leading Czech newspaper. Lucie Bartosova, pictured at center below, an editor at Lidove Noviny, was the first of three sets of journalists and photographers we met with that afternoon.

Following our interview, Lucie told me that she read my book in a library a few years ago, but always wanted her own copy, which she had just received from England a few days earlier. As she leafed through it again, she thought: "I'd love to meet the author." The next day, she learned I was coming to town and got the assignment to interview me.