Hermann Hesse

(1877 - 1962)

Having run away from the Maulbronn seminary and attempted suicide upon his forced return, Hermann Hesse turned fifteen while in an insane asylum in 1892. He published his first major work, Peter Camenzind, in 1904 and his autobiographical novel, Beneath the Wheel, in 1906. During World War I, Hesse lived in Switzerland, underwent psychoanalysis with a disciple of Carl Jung, and edited a journal for German war prisoners. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946.