Novelists by Century - 20th-Century Novelists, 21st-Century Novelists, Erich Kstner20th-Century Novelists, 21st-Century Novelists, Erich Kstner, Dick Francis, Leo Perutz, Sidney Allinson, Dick Francis, Leo Perutz, Sidney Allinson (Paperback)

Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Erich Kstner (German pronunciation: ) (23 February 1899 29 July 1974) was a German author, poet, screenwriter and satirist, known for his humorous, socially astute poetry and children's literature. Kstner was born in Dresden, Kingdom of Saxony. He grew up in the Knigsbrcker Strae of Dresden's uere Neustadt. Close by, the Erich Kstner Museum is located on the ground floor of Kstner's uncle Franz Augustin's former villa on Antonstrae next to the Albertplatz. Kstner's father Emil was a master saddlemaker. His mother Ida, ne Augustin, was a maidservant and housewife, and in her thirties trained to be a hairstylist in order to supplement her husband's income. Kstner had a particularly close relationship with his mother. While he lived in Leipzig and Berlin, he wrote her fairly intimate daily letters and postcards. His novels, too, seem to be pervaded by overbearing mothers. It was rumored that Erich Kstner's natural father was not Emil Kstner, but rather the Jewish family doctor, Emil Zimmermann (18641953). These rumors never were substantiated. Kstner wrote about his childhood in his 1957 autobiography When I Was a Little Boy. According to Kstner, he did not suffer from being an only child, had many friends, and was not lonely or over-indulged. In 1913, Kstner entered a teacher training school in Dresden, but left the school in 1916 shortly before completing the courses that would have qualified him to teach at public schools. The German Empire was in turmoil. In 1914, when he was 15, World War I broke out. He later wrote about the event that it "brought an end to my childhood." Kstner was drafted in 1917 and became part of a heavy artillery company. The brutality of the training he underwent as a soldier impressed Kstner stro... More: http://booksllc.net/?id=171126