The Big Hundred
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Franz Werfel
(1890-1945)
Czech-born Jewish poet, playwright, and novelist, whose
themes were religious faith, heroism and human brotherhood. His best-known works include The Forty Days of Musa Dagh (1933), a classic historical novel that portrays Armenian resistance to the Turks in 1915, and The Song of Bernadette
(1941). The latter book had its start when Werfel, a Jew escaping the Nazis, found
solace in the pilgrimage town of Lourdes, where St. Bernadette had had
visions of the Virgin. Werfel vowed to write about the saint if he ever
reached the United States.
Werfel was born in Prague, Bohemia (now Czech) as a son of a merchant. He was educated in Prague, where he met Franz Kafka, Leipzig and Hamburg. From 1911 to 1914 he worked at a publishing company. Werfel published his first verse collection, DER WELTFREUND, in 1911. Although pasifist Werfel served in the Austrian army during the World War I on the Russian army front, and was transferred in 1917 to the war press bureau in Vienna. There he met Alma Maria Schindler, the widow of Gustav Mahler, who lated become his wife. After the WW I Werfel worked as a full-time writer.
In the 1920s Werfel published among others DER SPIEGELMENSCH (1921), verse trilogy in the style of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust and Henrik Ibsen's Per Gynt. Influenced by Expressionism in German drama Werfel wrote THE GOAT SONG (1921) and JUAREZ UND MXIMILIAN (1924). His novel VERDI: ROMAN DER OPER (1924) depicted the famous Italian composer, and DIE GESCHWISTER VON NEAPEL (1931) was a historical story. Werfel lived in Austria until 1938, when Nazi occupation forced him into exile. After travelling from France to Spain, Werfel settled in the United States in 1940. He died in Beverly Hills, California, on August 26, 1945 in the middle of his work, correcting galley proof of his last book of verse.
Selected works:
- DER WELTFREUND, 1911
- DIE VERSUCHUNG, 1913
- WIR SIND, 1913
- EINANDER, 1915
- DIE TROERINNEN, 1915 - The Trojan Women - adaptationof Euripide's play
- GESÄNGEN AUS DEN DREI REICHEN, 1917
- DER GERICHTSTAG, 1919
- NICHT DER MÖRDER, DER ERMORDETE IST SCHULDIG, 1919
- DER BESUCH AUS DEM ELYSIUM, 1920
- SPIELGOF, 1920
- DER SPIEGELMENSCH, 1921
- SCHWEIGER, 1922
- BESCHWÖRUNGEN, 1923
- DIE MITTAGSGÖTTIN, 1923
- JUAREAZ UND MAXIMILIAN, 1924
- VERDI, ROMAN DER OPER, 1924 - Verdi, A Novel of the Opera
- PAULUS UNTER DEN JUDEN, 1926
- The Goat Song, 1926 -adapted from the drama Bocksgesang
- GEDICHTE, 1927
- GEHEIMNIS EINES MENSCHEN, 1927
- DER ABITURIENTENTAG, 1928
- DER TOD DES KLEINBÜRGERS, 1928 (short story)
- BARBARA ODER DIE FRÖMMIGKEIT, 1929 - The Pure in Heart
- DAS REICH GOTTES IN BÖHMEN, 1930
- DIE GESCHWISTER VON NEAPEL, 1931 - The Pascarella Family
- REALISMUS UND INNERLICHKEIT, 1931
- KLEINE VERHÄLTNISSE, 1931
- DIE GESCHWISTER VON NEAPEL, 1931
- DIE VIERZIG TAGE DES MUSA DAGH, 1933 - The Forty Days of Musa Dagh
- SCHLAF UND ERWACHEN, 1935
- DER WEG DER VERHEISSUNG, 1935
- The Eternal Road, 1936
- HÖRET DIE STIMME, 1937
- VON DER REINSTEN GLÜCKSELIGKEIT DES MENSCHEN, 1938
- DER VERUNTREUTE HIMMEL, 1939
- GEDICHTE AUS 30 JAHREN, 1939
- JACOBOWSKY UND DER OBERST, 1940 (play) - Jacobowsky and the Colonel
(prod. in New York 1944)
- DAS LIED VON BERNADETTE, 1941 - The Song of Bernadette
- JACOBOWSKY AND THE COLONEL, 1944
- ZWISCHEN OBEN UND UNTEN, 1946
- STERN DER UNGEBORENEN, 1946 - The Star of the Unborn
- GEDICHTE AUS DEN JAHREN 1908-455, 1946
Compiled by Kuusankoski Public Library, Finland (© 1997) and René Märtin (© 1998-2001).
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