"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.

By Byron LaDue, Kafka Project founding member & research associate

The search for Kafka's lost papers in the expansive region of Silesia has always relied on determination, luck, coincidence and the kindness of strangers. There was no definite plan when we arrived in Krakow, only a general idea to find some archives and pass out the Kafka Project Alert so that the archivists could recognize the missing Kafka treasure. And Kathi's belief that we needed to be here in order for "Something to Happen." A month ago we arrived in Krakow. There happened to be a Jewish Cultural Festival going on, beginning the day we arrived. As a part of the festival we decided to take Yiddish lessons at the Galicia Jewish Museum.

For an article she is writing, Kathi interviews the museum's director, Kate Craddy. As the interview concludes, Kate mentions, as an afterthought, that the US Embassy is throwing a Fourth of July party that very evening. She gives us the name of Susan Parker-Burns, Consul for Press and Culture at the US Consulate in Krakow as a contact. So we show up, get in the receiving line at the entrance to the party at the Sheraton, mention the name of Susan Parker-Burns, and, even though we admit that we don't know her and she doesn't know us, we know she is leaving on vacation and we need to speak to her tonight. We're a little bit dressed up and have our American passports and the next thing we know we're shaking hands with the US Ambassador to Poland. 

Hi fellow online travelers! Tomorrow we head for Silesia, where we have made a wonderful contact with a professor, Pawel Jedrzejko, at the University of Silesia, who is very enthusiastic about helping in our mission to find a missing literary treasure.  I'm looking forward to meeting and I hope working with him. This was exactly the kind of person we needed to connect to, and it's thanks to a lovely staff at the US Consulate in Krakow. On Thursday we headed south for the weekend and spent a lovely weekend in Zab, a small village in the Tatra mountains of Poland, about a three hour drive from Krakow. Byron wanted to write this one for you. So I give you LaDue who has "The View from Kafka's Head."

By Byron LaDue: We had given up on finding the sanatorium where Franz Kafka spent several months attempting to recover from tuberulosis. We didn't have much to go on. All we had was that Kafka had stayed at a sanatorium at Matliary in the Tatra mountains in Czechoslovakia. Kathi googled Matliary, but only a few references came up, nothing specific to the name or place today. There were Kafka references that related to Dora's story (this was the place Kafka met Klopstock, whose words "Who knows Dora knows what love means" are on Dora's tombstone.) There was also a picture of Kafka at Matliary. We have been staying on the Polish side of the Tatra mountains. Matliary would be on the Slovakian side. Ever since she saw them in the distance on our first trip to Poland in 2001, to research Dora's life in Bedzin for her book, Kathi's wanted to go to the Tatra Mountains. We are now at the base of the Tatras, about a three hour drive from Krakow, just outside the main town of Zakopane at a lovely hotel called Redyk in the village of Zab, the highest village in Poland, where you can see outside our window a lovely view of Polish farmland backed by mountains. Friday we visited the main village of Zakopane and found it to be a very popular tourist location for Polish families. There was a long line of traffic leading into the village offering a water park, river rafting, mountain trams, biking and a huge outdoor pedestrian alpine mall, Krupowki Street, several blocks long full of pedestrian traffic. There was a multitude of shops, street entertainers (including an actual dog-and-pony show) and a waffle and fruit treat which I couldn't resist.

We took a tram up into the foothills in the direction of our village, Zab, and then walked along an extensive row of vendors and rode back down the mountain on a chairlift.  It was a lot of sightseeing, a lot of walking and a lot of tourists. Having done Zakopane on Friday we decided that on Saturday we would just "drive around." We took off around noon in our rented Hyundai Getz with a hazy destination of another mountain tram located on our tourist map.

Before we knew it we were driving from Poland into Slovakia, which is now a separate country from the Czech Republic. We found the small village where the tram was located, a place called Tatranska Lominca. I changed some Polish Zloty into Slovakian Crowns (different from Czech Crowns) and we had lunch at a roadside hotel to get our bearings.

The Magical Mystery Literary History Tour travelers include architects, writers, editors, paralegals, software designers, computer engineers and self-described "geeks," homemakers, dancers, teachers, account executives, shop foremen, administrative assistants, water purification specialists, a doctor and even a clinical psychologist, helpful additions on any group tour, even a magical one.

They also include members of my family: my husband Byron LaDue, who posted an earlier blog entry (Kafka Project does Prague), my sister, Trudi Diamant, born in Germany and now living in Florida, and my cousin Karen and her husband Bob Willis of Virginia, have also joined the Kafka Project's mission to recover a lost literary treasure.

I have asked our group to contribute to this Kafka Project blog, in order to share with you the varied experiences we are having. While I've been able to participate in several of the city tours and meals--I try not to miss one of the great feasts we've been having--a good part of my time has been laying the groundwork for the upcoming research and getting the word out to the media. In Prague especially, the press coverage has been impressive, and many helpful new contacts have been made as a result. 

The Kafka Project is the talk of the town. The media attention we've been getting has been breathtaking. In all, I have been interviewed for Lidove Noviny and Mlada Fronta, the two largest daily newspapers, two radio stations, and two literary magazines, A2 and Respekt, and one more interview is scheduled for later today. Tonight at 7:30 p.m., at the Museum of Charles Bridge, I'm giving a talk about Dora Diamant's life after Kafka's death in 1924, and about the Kafka Project's efforts to discover Kafka's missing literary treasure.  

I've been so occupied that I haven't written the update on the Magical Mystery Literary History Tour-the Dora Group, as they have dubbed themselves. But all is not lost. Byron is here.