Franz Kafka was born in Prague, Bohemia, July 3, 1883 and died June 3, 1924 of tuberculosis at the age of 40. He came from a middle-class Jewish family. His father was a shopkeeper and tried to climb up the social ladder by working hard at his shop and sending Franz to a prestigious German high school. He went on to get a law degree and worked for two insurance companies (not at the same time) When his .tuberculosis got bad in 1917 he was put on temporary retirement with a pension. German was the language the upper class spoke and by sending Franz to German schools his father tried to disassociate from the lower class Jewish who lived in the ghetto. They were always moving from apartment to apartment advancing as the business grew.
             Franz had a very strained relationship with his father that traumatically affected his whole life. This is apparent in a letter to his father he wrote, "What was always incomprehensible to me was your total lack of feeling for the suffering and shame you could inflict on me with your words and judgments. It was as though you had no notion of your power" (Letter) .
             Max Brod and Franz met in college and became life long friends. It was Max who persuaded Franz to publish some of his work and it was Max who was responsible for most of the Kafka writings that are available today. Franz had entrusted his manuscripts to Max and in his last will and testament specified that all his work was to be destroyed. Instead Max had them published after Franz' death.
             Although he never married, he was engaged several times but always broke the engagement as the wedding day would approach. Most of the biographies about him tell of his problem with women and repulsion from sex and say that it was evident in his writings. In an entry in his diary he wrote "Coitus as the punishment for the happiness of being together" (Constructing). His romances and engagements are well documented...