Herman Hesse

Hermann Hesse, the German novelist and poet, was born in the Black Forest of Germany on July 2, 1877. He grew up in his birthplace and in Basle, Switzerland. Hesse's parents, both formerly missionaries in India, raised him in the pietist tradition, against which Hesse would balk for most of his childhood. He attended boarding school in Germany, as well as a theological seminary on his parents' wishes. Although he was a good student, the rebellious Hesse had no taste either for theology or for the pietist structure that he felt was attempting to swallow his individuality. Now in a strained relationship with his family, he finally quit seminary to pursue his own living at nineteen. Hesse had always desired to be a poet, and while working in a bookshop he published a small volume of poetry in 1899. His minor publications received no attention, until 1904 when he found success in his novel Peter Camenzind. He settled in the Swiss countryside with his wife Maria, with whom he raised two sons. Hesse went on to author many more poems and influential novels, including Siddartha, Demian,  and Steppenwolf, as well as political essays and some autobiographical work. As the years after World War I saw Hitler's rise to power, Hesse was against the dictator's emphasis on patriotism and suppression of art. His own works, which are heavily influenced by the German philosophers as well as eastern philosophy, were banned from the Nazi regime. However, Hesse was recognized elsewhere for his writings and ideas, being the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946 for his novel Magister Ludi. During the last years of his life, Hesse lived in his ideal habitat, the country, and pursued his longtime love of art as he watched his literary works gain popularity. Having separated from his schizophrenic wife, he married twice more, finding happiness with his third wife Ninon Dolbin. Hesse died on August 9, 1962.