Hermann Hesse

Biography

Hermann Hesse (1877-1962) was born in Calw, Germany, to missionary parents who had both spent years in India. His maternal grandfather was a renowned Indologist, and Hesse grew up surrounded by Eastern religious texts in a deeply Protestant household — a productive tension that never resolved. He trained briefly for the ministry before breaking down, eventually becoming a writer. His first major success came with Peter Camenzind (1904), but it was Siddhartha (1922) and Steppenwolf (1927) that made his international reputation. He suffered a severe breakdown around 1916-1919, underwent Jungian psychoanalysis with Josef Lang (a student of Jung's), and emerged with the material that became Siddhartha. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946. His novels were rediscovered in the 1960s counterculture, particularly in America, where Siddhartha became required reading for the generation seeking Eastern alternatives to Western materialism.

Hermann Hesse at a glance