Hermann Hesse

Hermann Karl Hesse (German: [ˈhɛʁman ˈhɛsə] ; 2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a German-Swiss poet and novelist, and winner of the 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature. His interest in Eastern religious, spiritual, and philosophical traditions, combined with his involvement with Jungian analysis, helped to shape his literary work. His best-known novels include Demian, Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, Narcissus and Goldmund, and The Glass Bead Game, each of which explores an individual's search for authenticity, self-knowledge, and spirituality.

Hesse was a widely read author in German-speaking countries during his lifetime, but his more enduring international fame did not come until a few years after his death, when, in the mid-1960s, his works became enormously popular with post-World War II generation readers in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere.

Life and work

Family background

Hermann Karl Hesse was born on 2 July 1877 in the Black Forest town of Calw, in Württemberg, German Empire. His grandparents served in India at a mission under the auspices of the Basel Mission, a Protestant Christian missionary society. His grandfather Hermann Gundert compiled a Malayalam grammar and a Malayalam-English dictionary, and also contributed to a translation of the Bible into Malayalam in South India. Hesse's mother, Marie Gundert, was born at such a mission in South India in 1842. In describing her own childhood, she said, "A happy child I was not ...". As was usual among missionaries at the time, she was left behind in Europe at the age of four when her parents returned to India.