Zweig was born in Vienna. He studied in Austria, France, and Germany. By 1904 he had earned a doctorate from Vienna University - hisdissertation dealt with Taine. Zweig travelled widely before settling in Salzburg in 1913. Zeig's first work, SILBERNE SAITEN, a collection of poems, appeared in 1901. His play, JEREMIAH, which he wrote in 1917, was produced in Switzerland and later in New York in 1939.

In Salzburg Zweig lived for nearly twenty years, tralling also a good deal. In the 1930s Zweig was one of the most widely translated authors of the world. He married in 1914 Friderike von Winternitz, who had started to send him already in 1901 fan mail.

Zweig became first known as a poet and translator, and later as a biographer, short-story writer, and novelist. Among his works in the 1920s is a study of Friedrich Nietzsche in Master Builders (1925), STERNSTUNDEN DER MENSCHHEIT (1928), a biography of the French statesman Joseph Fouché (1929), and short story collection Conflicts (1925). Zwieg's essays include portraits of Honoré de Balzac, Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Friedrich Hölderlin, and Heinrich von Kleist. He was also interested in the teachings of Sigmund Freud, which influenced also his biographies, and translated works from such authors as Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, and Émile Verhaeren.

During the years at Salzburg Zweig began to see Hitler's persecution of Jews directed at him personally, and never recovered from this paranoia. His story The Royal Game used two games of chess to illustrate the horrors of Nazism.

In 1934 Zweig was driven into exile by the Nazis. He immigrated first to England to do research work for the book on Mary, Queen of Scots. He became a British citized and in 1940 he went to Brazil.

Disillusioned in their new surroundings, Zwig committed suicide with his second wife in Persepolis, near Rio de Janeiro on February 23, 1942. Brazilia's populist dictator, Getulio Vargas, ordered that his burial expenses should be paid for by the state. Zweig's autobiograph The World of Yesterday was published posthumously in 1943.

In World Authors 1900-1950 (1996) Zweig wrote, that "my main interest in writing has always been the psychological representation of personalities and their lives and this was also the reason which prompted me to write various essays and biographical studies of well-known personalities". The vogue of Zweig's biographies has gradually died out although they still have the qualitu to inspire readers to further investigation of the subject.

For further reading: Moral Values and the Human Zoo by D. Turner (1946); Stefan Zweig: A Tribute, ed. by H. Arens (1951); European of Yesterday by D.A. Prater (1972); Stefan Zweig by E. Allday (1972); Lives in Between by L. Spitzer (1990); World Authors 1900-1950, ed. by Martin Seymour-Smith and Andrew C. Kimmens (1996)

Film adaptations: Brennendes Geheimnis by Robert Siodmark (1933); Amok, dir. by Fedor Ozep 81934); Valkoiset ruusut, dir. by Hannu Leminen (1943); Beware of the Pity, dir. by Maurice Elvey (1946); Letter from an Unknown Woman, dir. by Max Ophuls (1947); Schachnovelle, dir. by Gerd Oswald (1960); Burning Secret, dir. by Andrew Birkin (1989)

SEE ALSO: Nelly Sachs, Gabriela Mistral, Rainer Maria Rilke

Selected works:

• SILBERNE SAITEN, 1901
• DIE FRÜHEN KRÄNZE, 1906
• TERSITES, 1907
• ERSTES ERLEBNIS / BRENNENDES GEHEIMNIS, 1911
• DAS HAUS AM MEER, 1912
• JEREMIAS, 1917
• ANGST, 1920
• DREI MEISTER,1920 - Three Masters
• ROMAIN ROLLAND, 1922
• AMOK, 1922 - transl.
• DIE AUGEN DES EWIGEN BRUDERS, 1922
• DIE GESAMMELTE GEDICHTE, 1924
• DER KAMPF MIT DÄMON, 1925 - Master Builders
• VERWIRRUNG DER GEFÜ
HLE, 1925 - Conflicts
• STERNSTUNDEN DER MENSCHHEIT, 1928 - The Tide of Fortune
• J. FOUCHÈ, 1929
• DIE HEILUNG DURCH DEN GEIST, 1931
• MARIE ANTOINETTE, 1932 - transl. - suom.
• MARIA STUART, 1935 - Mary Queen of Scotland
• TRIUMPH UND TRAGIK DES ERASMUS VON ROTTERDAM, 1935
• DIE SCHWEIGSAME FRAU, 1935
• BAUMEISTER DER WELT, 1936
• BEGEGNUNGEN MIT MENSCHEN, BÜCHERN, STÄDTE, 1937
• MAGELLAN, 1938
• UNGEGULD DES HERZENS, 1938 - Beware of Pity
• BRASILIEN, 1941
• DIE WELT VON GESTERN, 1942 - The World of Yesterday
• AMERIGO, 1942
• SCHACHNOVELLE, 1943 - The Royal Game
• ZEIT UND WELT, 1943
• BALZAC, 1946 - Balzac
• Stefan Zweig and Fredierike Zweig, 1954
• UNBEKANNTE BRIEFE AUS DER EMIGRATION, 1964
• A Confidential Matter, 1977
• BRIEFE AN FREUNDE, 1978
• The Royal Game and Other Stories, 1981
• GESAMMELTE WERKE, 1981
• RAUSCH DER WERWANDLUNG, 1982
• The Correspondence of Stefan Zweig with Raoul Auernheimer, 1983
• TAGEBÜCHER, 1984
• Jewish Legends, 1986