A Chronology of Franz Kafka's Life

• 1883 -- Born in Prague, July 3, son of Hermann and Julie.
  1899 - 1900 -- Reads Spinoza, Darwin, Nietzsche.
  
  1899 - 1903 -- Early writings (destroyed).
  
  1901 - 1906 -- Study of German literature, then law at German University, Prague.
  
  1904 - 1905 -- "Description of a Struggle" written.
  
  1906 -- Works in the law office of Richard Lowy, Prague. Gets degree of doctor juris at German University, Prague.
  
  1907 - 1908 -- "Wedding Preparations in the Country" written.
  
  1908 -- Position at the semi-governmental Worker's Accident Insurance Institute (until retirement, July 1922). Close friendship with Max Brod.
  
  1909 -- Publication of eight prose pieces in Hyperion.
  
  1910 -- Publication of five prose pieces in Bohemia, beginning of the Diaries.
  
  1911 - 1912 -- Contact with Yiddish theater company and friendship with Yiddish actor Isak Lowy; study of Jewish folklore.
  
  1911 - 1914 -- Working on Amerika (main parts written 1911-12).
  
  1912 -- First studies of Judaism; meets Felice Bauer from Berlin; manuscript of Meditation sent to the publisher; beginning of correspondence with Felice Bauer; "The Judgment" written; "The Stoker" (later became first chapter of Amerika) written; "The Metamorphosis" written.
  
  1913 -- Publication of Meditation; publication of "The Stoker"; publication of The Judgment.
  
  1914 -- "Memoirs of the Kalda Railroad" written; "In the Penal Colony" written; begins writing The Trial.
  
  1915 -- Renewed meeting with Felice Bauer; continues working on The Trial; receives Fontane Prize for "The Stoker"; publication of The Metamorphosis; "The Village Schoolmaster" written.
  
  1916 -- Meeting with Felice Bauer in Marienbad; draws up a list of reasons for and against marriage; stories written, later collected in A Country Doctor.
  
  1917 -- "The Hunter Gracchus" written; learning Hebrew; "The Great Wall of China" written; second engagement to Felice Bauer; begins coughing blood; diagnosis of tuberculosis; leave of absence from office; breaking of second engagement to Felice Bauer; aphorisms written (octavo notebooks).
  
  1918 -- Aphorisms continued.
  
  1919 -- Diary entries are resumed; engagement to Julie Wohryzek (broken November 1919); publication of In the Penal Colony; publication of A Country Doctor; "Letter to His Father" written; "He," collection of aphorisms, written.
  
  1920 -- Sick leave from Worker's Accident Insurance; meets Gustav Janouch; meets Milena Jesenska'-Pollak, Czech writer (correspondence); writing stories.
  
  1921 -- Tatra Mountains sanatorium; then Prague; Milena.
  
  1921 - 1924 -- Stories written, collected in A Hunger Artist.
  
  1922 -- The Castle written; "A Hunger Artist" written; last meeting with Milena; "Investigations of a Dog" written.
  
  1923 -- With Dora Dyamant in Berlin-Steglitz; "The Burrow" written; A Hunger Artist sent to publisher.
  
  1924 -- "Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk" written; brought as a patient from Berlin to Prague; to Wiener Wald Sanatorium; death in Kierling; burial June 11, in the Jewish cemetery in Prague-Straschnitz; publication of A Hunger Artist.
  
  1924 -- Death of K.'s sister Ottla in Auschwitz. The other two sisters also perished in German concentration camps.
  
  1944 -- Death of Grete Bloch at the hands of a Nazi soldier. Death of Milena in a German concentration camp.
  
  1952 -- Death of Dora Dyamant in London.
  
  1960 -- Death of Felice Bauer.

Taken from Kafka: The Complete Stories, Schocken Books, 1971, New York.

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