Hermann Hesse – 20th-century German-Swiss writer, author of Steppenwolf and The Glass Bead Game, Nobel Prize laureate (1946). His novels explored spiritual quests, solitude, and the encounter between Eastern and Western thought.
📚 In Siddhartha, he drew on his fascination with Buddhism and Indian philosophy. 🎨 Not only a writer, but also a painter – especially fond of watercolours. 🏥 During a personal crisis, he entered a sanatorium and underwent analysis influenced by Jung. ✍️ Worked in a bookshop, shaping his taste for classics. 🌍 After WWI, he became a pacifist and outspoken critic of nationalism. 🎭 Steppenwolf was embraced by the rebellious youth of the 1960s as a manifesto. 📖 The Glass Bead Game is regarded as his philosophical testament. 👓 Frequently inserted disguised self-portraits into his characters. 💔 His private life was turbulent – three marriages, each troubled. 😂 Curiosity: in letters he jokingly called himself nicknames like “Old Inkwell”. 😄 Amusing fact: once joked he had written so many letters they amounted to “a novel with stamps”.