Soul of the Age: Selected Letters of Hermann Hesse, 1891-1962

by Hermann Hesse, Mark Marman (Translator), Therodore J. Ziolkowski (Introduction)

Overview

Throughout his life, Herman Hesse was a devoted letter writer. He corresponded, not just with friends and family, but also with his readers. From his letters home from the seminary at age fourteen, to his last letters, written days before his death at eighty-five, this selection gives a sense of the author of some of the most widely read books of the century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781466835191
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	01/22/2013
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	347
File size:	3 MB

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 Steppenwolf, Narcissus and Goldmund, and The Glass Bead Game. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946. Hermann Hesse died in 1962.

Hermann Hesse (1877-1962) was a German poet and novelist. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962. He was the author of numerous works including Siddhartha, Steppenwolf, and Demian.

Editorial Reviews

About half of the 30,000 letters written by German writer Hesse are extant. This book makes available a major selection of them for the first time in English (see also The Hesse-Mann Letters, 1910-1955 , LJ 5/15/75). Hesse, the 1946 Nobel Laureate in Literature and author of Steppenwolf , Siddhartha , and The Glass Bead Game , personally responded to all his correspondence until his mid-seventies. The letters take the place of an autobiography, as Hesse scholar Ziolkowski (Princeton) points out in the introduction, and cover his adolescence (boys' school, attempted suicide), his three marriages, and his relentlessly honest feelings about Germany's involvement in the world wars. A valuable picture of one of the greatest writers of the 20th century emerges. Highly recommended for German literature collections.-- Ingrid Schierling, Univ. of Colorado at Colorado Springs

Library Journal

This collection contains some 300 letters (Hesse wrote more than 30,000 during his lifetime) which provide an intimate look at the writer's three marriages and his relationships with his sons, friends, and colleagues, as well as a record of his early resistance to and despair at the two world wars, his interest in contemporary literature, and his love for nature. Steppenwolf, Narcissus and Goldmund, and The glass bead game are among the most widely read novels of this century. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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