Oskar Baum

(1883–1941), prose writer and poet. The blind poet Oskar Baum was a member of the Prague Circle of German-speaking Jewish writers in the first decades of the twentieth century as well as a particularly close friend of Max Brod, Felix Weltsch and Franz Kafka, to whom the author read his early drafts of 'The Metamorphosis' and other manuscripts.

Baum published his literary debut in 1908 with 'Uferdasein' (Bank Existence), and the autobiographical 'Das Leben im Dunkeln' (Life in te Dark).

These two, together with Nacht ist umher (1929; Night is all around), were hailed by Stefan Zweig as “the most moving documents, in the German language, of the lightless world taken from the life of the blind.” The burden of Baum’s writings on his disability was opposition to the compassion society extended to the blind. In its stead he called for the creation of equality of opportunity for the disable — a call which influenced modern educational practice in this area.