The fact of the current Hesse vogue in this country is easier to ascertain than its causes….
It should be noted at the outset that the phenomenon is less aesthetic than cultural. This means, first, that any discussion regarding Hesse's purely literary merits is irrelevant to the subject. Whether Hesse is a "good" writer or not, he has touched a chord that resounds in the hearts and minds—probably "soul" would be the proper word since it is a common denominator in the vocabularies of Hesse and contemporary youth—of thousands of young Americans. Secondly, anyone wishing to understand the phenomenon must be concerned not so much with what Hesse actually says in his works as with what his readers think or like to believe that he says. For it is a sound though frequently disregarded principle of literary sociology that misconceptions are often as important to the reader as is the true understanding of a writer's works. Finally, the theological analogy suggested by the Hesse cult in America is by no means purely gratuitous. Hesse himself insisted that the primary impulse of his writing was in the broader sense religious, and it is explicitly to this "religious" or—more precisely—ethical impulse that his readers have always responded….
