Jan Weiss shared the fate of tens of thousands of Czechs and Slovaks, by spending the decisive years of the birth of Czechoslovakia away from his homeland - first on the eastern WWI front, then from 1916 as a POW in Russia, later joining the Czechoslovak Legion (like his world famous colleague Jaroslav Haek). Upon his return to Prague, Weiss worked as a ministry clerk and began publishing in 1927.