Short answers, pulled from the story.
The word robot was introduced in Karel Čapek's 1920 play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), but Čapek credited the actual invention to his brother, the painter and writer Josef Čapek. The word derives from robota, a Czech word meaning corvée or serf labor, and figuratively drudgery or hard work. It traces back to the reconstructed Proto-Slavic word orbota, meaning work or obligatory labor for the king.
Karel Čapek was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature seven times but never received it.
Karel Čapek died of pneumonia on the 25th of December 1938. He had contracted a common cold while repairing flood damage at his family's summer house in Stará Huť. His lifelong spondyloarthritis and heavy smoking made the illness fatal.
Čapek refused an offer of exile in England even after it became clear that France and the United Kingdom would not defend Czechoslovakia against Nazi Germany. He chose to remain in his country despite the Nazi Gestapo having named him public enemy number two.
The Karel Čapek Prize is awarded every other year by the Czech PEN Club for literary work that contributes to reinforcing or maintaining democratic and humanist values in society.
Karel Čapek established the Czechoslovak PEN Club and served as its first president. He also played a key role in bringing it into the International PEN network.