Hesse, Hermann

(born July 2, 1877, Calw, Ger.—died Aug. 9, 1962, Montagnola, Switz.) German novelist and poet. He left the seminary because of his inability to adapt to the life there. His first novel was Peter Camenzind (1904); it was followed by Beneath the Wheel (1906), Gertrud (1910), and Rosshalde (1914).

An opponent of militarism, he settled permanently in Switzerland at the outbreak of World War I (1914–18). His later works deal with the individual's search for spiritual fulfillment, often through mysticism. Demian (1919), influenced by his experience with psychoanalysis, made him famous. Siddhartha (1922), about the early life of Buddha, reflects his interest in Eastern spiritualism. Steppenwolf (1927), which examines the conflict between bourgeois acceptance and spiritual self-realization, was highly influential in its time and brought him cult status among the young of more than one generation. Narcissus and Goldmund (1930) and The Glass Bead Game (1943; also published as Magister Ludi) concern duality and the conflict between the contemplative and the active life. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946. His mysticism and his interest in self-realization kept him popular long after his death.

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