Hermann Hesse: A Pictorial Biography

Hermann Hesse

Jan 2013 · Sold by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

About this ebook

Hermann Hesse: A Pictorial Biography offers a wealth of unknown photographic and textual material which was first discovered among Hesse's literary effects after his death. Over 200 photographs chronicle his family background, his school and apprentice years, his first literary efforts and initial successes, his travels to India and throughout Europe, his continuing growth as a writer. These photographs, apart from illustrating Hesse's long and varied life, amply document his position in the cultural life of his time and his relationships with celebrated contemporaries.

The photographs are accompanied by a brief text prepared by Volker Michels, a leading Hesse scholar, which includes comments about Hesse from such writers as Thomas Mann, Martin Buber, T.S. Eliot, and Andre Gide, examples of Hesse's unpublished light verse, and a detailed chronological table. Hesse's own essay "Life Story Briefly Told" serves as an introduction. Together, text and pictures provide the Hesse reader with new tools to interpret and evaluate the life and works of this exceptional man and artist.

About the author

Hermann Hesse was born in Germany in 1877 and later became a citizen of Switzerland. As a Western man profoundly affected by the mysticism of Eastern thought, he wrote many novels, stories, and essays that bear a vital spiritual force that has captured the imagination and loyalty of many generations of readers. His works include Beneath the Wheel, Narcissus and Goldmund, and The Glass Bead Game. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946. Hermann Hesse died in 1962.