Franz Kafka letter shows author’s anguished struggle with writer’s block

The letter, signed ‘Kafka’, is believed to have been written between April and June 1920, when the author was being treated for tuberculosis at a clinic in northern Italy. Photograph: Sotheby's

A rare letter written by Franz Kafka to his publisher shows just how anguished a struggle it was for the Bohemian writer to put pen to paper, especially as his health deteriorated.

The letter, which will soon be auctioned, coincided with Kafka’s diagnosis with tuberculosis, which would end up killing him and which, scholars say, very probably added to his sense of mental paralysis and helplessness.