Hesse was born into family of Pietist missionairies and religious publishers in the Black Forest town of Calw in the German state of Wüttenberg. His parents expected him to follow the family tradition in theology and he entered the Protestant seminary at Maulbronn in 1891, but was expelled from the school. After unhappy experiences at secular school Hesse worked in several jobs, as a bookshop clerk, as a mechanic and as a book dealer in Tübingen, where he joined literary circle called Le Petit Cénacle. In 1899 Hesse published his first works, ROMANTISCHE LIEDER and EINE STUNDE HINTER MITTERNACHT.

Hesse became freelance writer in 1904, when his novel PETER CAMENZIND appeared and gained literary success. In the same year he married Maria Bernoulli, with whom he had three children. Hesse and his family took permanet residence in Switzerland in 1912.

A visit in India in 1911 gave start to his studies of Eastern religions and novel SIDDHARTHA (1922), which was based on the early life of Gautama Buddha.

Hesse's breakthrough novel was DEMIAN (1919), which was highly praised by Thomas Mann, who compared its importance to James Joyce's Ulysses and André Gide's The Counterfeiters. The novel attracted especially young veterans of the WW I, and reflected Hesse's personal crisis and interest in Jungian psychoanalysis.

Leaving his family in 1919 Hesse moved to Montagnola, in southern Switzerland. Hesse married his third wife Ninon Dolbin 1931 and began in the same year work on his masterpiece DAS GLASPERLENSPIEL, which was published in 1943.

After receiving the Nobel Prize Hesse wrote no major works. He died of cerebral hemorrage in his sleep on August 9, 1962 at the age of eighty-five. Hesse's other famous novels are Steppenwolf, and Narcissus and Goldmund.

In the 1960s and 1970s Hesse became a cult figure for young readers, but the interest declined in the 1980s.

SEE: Romain Rolland, who was also interested in Indian philosophy. Hesse's novel Demian was based on Carl Jung's theories of individuation. James Joyce's daughter Lucia was among Jung's patients in the 1930s. See also Zelda Fitzgerald.

Selected works:

• ROMANTISCHE LIEDER, 1899
• EINE STUNDE HINTER MITTERNACHT, 1899
• HINTERLASSENE SCHRIFTEN UND GEDICHTE VON HERMANN LAUSCHER, 1901
• PETER CAMENZIND, 1904
• UNTERM RAD, 1906 - Beneath the Wheel
• GERTRUD, 1910
• ROSSHALDE, 1914
• KLINGSORS LETZTER SOMMER, 1920 - Klingsor's Last Summer
• SIDDHARTHA, 1922
• DEMIAN, 1919 - published under pseudonym Emil Sinclair
• DER STEPPENWOLF, 1927 - Steppenwolf
• NARZISS UND GOLDMUND, 1930 - Narcissus and Goldmund
• DIE MORGENLANDFAHRT, 1932
• GLASPERLENSPIEL, 1943 - The Glass Bead Game (also: Magister Ludi)
• BERTHOLD, 1945
• TRAUMFÄHRTE, 1945
• KRIEG UND FRIENDEN, 1946
• FRÜHE PROSA, 1948
• SPÄTE PROSA, 1951
• ZWEI IDYLLEN, 1952
• PROSA AUS DEM NACHLASS, 1965
• NEUE DEUTSCHE BÜCHER, 1966
• KINDHEIT UND JUGEND VOR 1900, 1966
• POLITISCHE BETRACHTUNGEN, 1970