V. M. Straka

V. M. Straka is the author on the cover of Ship of Theseus. His identity is unknown and it has been suggested that V. M. Straka is an nom de plume.

His identity is one of the central mysteries of S. (the literary project by Doug Dorst and J. J. Abrams)

Spoiler-Free Summary
V. M. Straka is the credited author of the book Ship of Theseus as well as other 18 books published from 1911 all the way to 1949, all dark political novels. Almost nothing is know about the author, a fact that has lead a lot of people to suggest that "V. M. Straka" is likely a nom de plume.

Who and even how many people are behind the the name is unknown but there are schoolars who have composed and suggested many detailed theories and created a list of likely candidates, each with various degrees of proof and acceptance within their own comunity.

Of the things that do are know about the author it can be mentioned that all his books were published by Karst & Son, a publishing company in Munich, the only exception being his last book, Ship of Theseus, published by Winged Shoes Press. Also, F. X. Caldeira is credited as translator in all of his books from the Spotted Cat (1925) on.

Straka's books had many critics, the most prominet of which is Edsel B. Grimshaw. On the other hand, he also developed a number of devote followers and schoolars of which we can most notably mention the profesor T. Wright Moody and the French professor Jean Bernard Desjardins.

Personal Life
There is not much known about Straka's personal life and most of what its known hasn't or can't be proved. However, some things do are known about his life.

In 1912 Straka was awarded the Prix Bouchard for his first novel, Miracle at Braxenholm, but refused it by sending a capuchin  monkey with a note, protesting against the Bouchard Family. The full story of this event can be read by checking out J. W. Dominguez web page here.

Works & Writting Style
All of the 19 books credited to V. M. Straka are dark political novels for adults with heavy anti-capitalism sentiments. Some recurring themes of his novels are: deaths by falling, blaming oneself for cowardice, people in power not understanding or caring to understand others, the identity of the self, the new generation replacing the old and trusting characters in the novels were usually punished.

In his books he never titled his chapters, didn't used a lot of dream sequences, narrated in the 3rd person, tended to use allegory and draw a lot of inspiration from real life events. According to F. X. Caldeira, his translator, V. M. Straka always wrote his manuscripts in different foreign languages with an onionskin typescript in creased manila envelopes.

By his request, none of his boooks contained forewords, commentaries or footnotes. The notable exception to this is, of course, Ship of Theseus, which includes all of the previously mentioned additions by F. X. Caldeira.

His novels are provocative and controversial that included secret, conspiracies and shadow-world occurrences that shamed industrialists; foreseeing the sweep of totalitarianism of the early 20th century.

Issue of Identity
The issue of who V. M. Straka really was is heavily debated and a consensus on the matter hasn't yet been achieved. Below there are two lists of Straka candidates.

List of F. X. Caldeira's Candidates
In the foreword included in Ship of Theseus, translator F. X. Caldeira offers a list of possible Straka candidates: F. X. Caldeira also includes a second, less likely list of candidates.
 * Torsten Ekstrom, the swedish children's author.
 * Guthrie MacInnes.
 * Tiago Garcia Ferrera
 * Victor Martin Summersby
 * C. F. J. Wallingford
 * Reinhold Feuerbach
 * Kajetán Hruby
 * Amarante Durand
 * Vaclav Straka
 * Juan Blas Cobarrubias
 * A 14th Century Nun
 * Nazca King
 * Grand Duchess Olga
 * Apis Amanuensis

List of J. W. Dominguez's Candidates
This is a partial list of minor Straka candidates according to J. W. Dominguez.
 * Sadahiro Shimizu
 * Sybylla Akkerman
 * Karel Brzezicki
 * Gennady Drozdov
 * Benjamin B. Jensen
 * A.N. Massoud
 * Ogbonna Ndabo
 * Emily Woodforde Parsons
 * Bela Álmos Ujváry
 * C.F.J. Wallingford

Other Candidates
The scholar and V. M. Straka authority, Jean Bernard Desjardins, (apart from strongly supporting the theory of Straka being Ekstrom) proposed the possibility that Straka was in fact nor a person but a collective, a secret organization called The S. (not to be confused with S. the main character of Ship of Theseus or S. The real life literary proyect by Doug Dorst and J. J. Abrahams).

Death
Not much is known about V. M. Straka, however, according to the foreword presented in his last book, Ship of Theseus, written by his translator, F. X. Calderia, whoever V. M. Straka was (or were) is now dead and his last book was published posthumosly (to be exact, Ship of Theseus was published on October 1949 while, according to F. X. Calderia, Straka died in June of that same year). However, many schoolars do not believe F. X. Caldeira's recount of events.

In the foreword of Ship of Theseus, F. X. Caldeira claims that, although they corresponded for many years, he and Straka never met. In 1946, May, while Straka and Caldeira were working on the Ship of Theseus, he invited Caldeira to the Hotel San Sebastian in Havana to hand Caldeira the 10th and final chapter of Ship of Theseus in person. When Caldeira arrived, his room was empty with signs of struggle (the manuscript pages were dispersed) and people dressed like policemen were loading a body into a truck.

Some believe that body was Straka's, some belive it was someone else. Others argue the whole thing was staged while some others say the story is entirely fictional. Some even suggest F. X. Caldeira never existed and was the same person as V. M. Straka.

Trivia
These are some random facts known about Straka. These come from the footnotes and most are clearly false, hiding coded messages for him.
 * A rumor said that he spent each half year in a remote cabin in Thinkar, Bhutan, where he practiced mountaineering when he didn't write.
 * He often had dreams of many archeological strata simultaneously.
 * Staying ahead of creditors, state organs, covert operatives, exploiters of his work and identity took a toll on his body and health and he had many physical ailments. According to FXC, chronic ear infection left him unable to hear sounds between 2710-60 HZ.
 * He loved Carmina Burana. He told FXC several times that it was the truest, most intense expression more than he would ever write. (this is true as it is the reason why FXC loved that piece too)
 * He was a young violin prodigy but at a music contest he came in 19th out of 19.
 * He was an avid birdwatcher and he would not reply when a favorite species passed over his area.

Facts

 * Although in all probability it is a pseudonym, Straka is a Czech/Slovak surname meaning magpie,.
 * Textual analysis suggests that Braxenholm (1911) was written by a young person.
 * The Square shows first-hand knowledge of the Haymarket bombing.
 * The Painted Cave shows detailed knowledge of archaeological sites in the south of France.
 * The Spotted Cat shows familiarity with the piratical life and much knowledge of the Nazca region.
 * The Black Nineteen shows a high-ranking member of the Black Hand, or access to such a person.
 * Straka is generally presumed to have been raised/educated in the west (although this may have more to do with the cultural bias of scholars and readers)
 * Linguistic analyses don't rule out the possibility that the books were written by a native English speaker. Well-regarded analyses favored a Spanish, and then Swedish native speaker. Other analyses pointed to a German or Czech speaker. They also suggest strongly that he was not a native French-speaker.
 * His texts reveal an extremely well-educated, well-read and well-traveled person.
 * His views are radical leftist, if not anarchist, and aggressively (even strident) anti-capitalist. He seems to be endorsing violence.

Conclusion Reached at the End of The Book
Careful, major spoilers ahead.

Ship of Theseus is a book best read blind.

You have been warned.

At the end of the book there is no definitive conclusion reached regarding Straka's identity. However, many of the candidates are almost certaintly scratched and other's greatly suppported.

First of all, Jennifer Heyward and Eric Husch, by the end of the book, opt for the theory that Straka was the young factory worker Vaclav Straka. Although, it must be said that they had no prof that Vlaclav Straka had survived his jump (either real, suicide or staged) from Charles Bridge in Prage.

Despite this, it is confirmed that neither Ekstrom, Durand, Summersby, MacInnes, Feuerbach or Ferrara could have been Straka. Nontheless, the posibility that all of them, as a group (The S.), using Vaclav's name as nom de plum, were Straka, is hinted to be a strong one.

It is also proven that Straka and F. X. Caldeira are in fact, different people.