Rare Book of the Day – R.U.R., Karel Capek. Featuring the first appearance of the word "Robot." First American Printing.

This one's got a killer dust jacket and is also noteworthy for introducing the term "robot" into the world lexicon.

Karel Capek was a Czech writer in the early twentieth century who wore many hats, including those of playwright, dramatist, essayist, publisher, literary reviewer, photographer and art critic. R.U.R. (Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti, which translates to Rossum's Universal Robots), was his second play, published in Prague by Aventinum in 1920 and premiered in that city on 25 January 1921. It achieved instant success and by 1923 had been translated into thirty languages.

The work begins in a factory where artificial people, called roboti (robots), are being created from synthetic organic matter to serve the rest of humanity. This eventually leads to a robot uprising, resulting in the extinction of the human species. Most critics hailed R.U.R. as an instant dystopian sci-fi classic. Isaac Asimov, however, was a bit less than enthusiastic, stating "Capek's play is, in my own opinion, a terribly bad one, but it is immortal for that one word. It contributed the word 'robot' not only to English but, through English, to all the languages in which science fiction is now written." As a side note, Asimov's Laws of Robotics in his I, Robot and subsequent sequels were explicitly designed to prevent the type of uprising in R.U.R. Despite its literary merits, its influence cannot be denied.

This is the first American printing, with the bad ass and mega-scarce dust jacket:

Early stage photos of R.U.R.:

More info here:
http://www.rarebooksleuth.com/featured/r-u-r-rossums-universal-robots-karel-capek-first-edition-dj