Hermann Hesse Biography

by Ralph Freedman

The stormy life story of the Nobel Prize-winning writer whose novels, selling millions, captivated a generation, shaping the counter-culture's infatuation with the East and mysticism, and youth's absorption in the passion of adolescent crisis.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

432 pages, Hardcover

First published December 12, 1978

About the author

Ralph Freedman, who grew up in Nazi Germany, emigrated at 19 to England and ultimately the United States. He served in the US Army during World War II, in Tunisia, Sicily and Italy, afterwards graduating from the University of Washington and earning a doctorate at Yale. He taught 12 years at the University of Iowa, 22 at Princeton and for two post-retirement years at Emory University. He wrote and published two novels (Divided, 1948 and Rue the Day, 2009), criticism (The Lyrical Novel, 1963), biographies of Hesse (1978), Rilke (1996), and many essays. His works have been translated into German, French, Italian, Spanish, Korean, and Japanese. A Chinese version of the biography of Rilke is in press.

Reviews

[Ria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our paths crossed at Blossoms before the second wave hitting, that is to say I have been trying to finish this book for a while. There were times when I regretted picking it up from the second hand book shelf as well as times where I could not just keep it down. From being considered a crime to be read to being a nobel laureate, Hesse shared with honesty his dilemmas and crisis. The author indeed has done a lot of research to get such a deep understanding of Hesse, only to fall in love with his subject.

"
Hesse's message of wholeness
that can never be whole,
of exile that strives towards
but can never reach home

"

[Michael Del Camp · Rating 5 out of 5]

I forgot - all I remember is that when I was in high school, I read everything by and about Herman Hesse and Eric Fromme I could get my hands on. Looking back, I should have read more books by Kurt Vonnegut and Saul Bellow back then, too.

[Jason Arias · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an extensively researched and enlightening read on one of the 20th century's most influential writers. You want to know the real life of a writer? The real insecurities, obstacles (both internal and external), and (when seeking endgame artistic expressions) transcendent evolutions? If so, this is biography for you. But don't go in blind.

If you are already a fan of Hesse, you're well prepared. If you're unfamiliar with his work then hit the big ones: Demian, Siddhartha, Steppenwolf, Narcissus and Goldmund, and The Glass Bead Game. For a slim treat hit up Journey to the East. The transformation of this author over the years and the way he captures the conflicts of a persons spirit is astounding. And here, in this biography, Freedman holds nothing back. Hesse is neither a sinner or saint, he is wholly human, flaws and all. I would not trade my time with this book for anything.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

An investigation of the life that produced many classic titles. Confirmation that if you write what you know, you can produce great works. Many of Hesse's novels are very autobiographical.

[Dylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rather than guru, mystical convert, or philosopher par excellence: this biography will show you a man constantly afflicted for almost his entire life by ailments, depression, escapism, complaints, whining, a spell of suicide (steppenwolf era), burdens of marriage he didn't even want to take in the first place, petty political arguments and justifications, and a constant polarity of indecision between states of being: that of the comfortable bourgeois at home and that of the roving wanderer who wants to unshackle all chains (Apollo and Dionysus, Narcissus and Goldmund)—every time he'd enter one state, the grass would look greener. That is until quite late in life, when he may have finally calmed down. I still enjoyed reading of his exploits though. But for all the fame he had garnered, why did he complain so much. If I were to achieve that level of fame that he did quite early in life as a writer, I imagine I would be much happier, but who knows: maybe the fame would come with its own burdens. As David Bowie said in the 2000s, I wouldn't wish fame on my worst enemy, though he was a pop star of a constantly changing image and identity, whereas Hesse was a european literary intellectual who only in the slightest played up the steppenwolf image for a bit in public.

[Alan Schiller · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit repetitive at times, but perhaps we can sympathize with the biographer dealing with a subject as neurotic as the great Hermann Hesse. I would have liked to read more about the reception of Hesse's work in the American counterculture in the 60s and early 70s, a critical market for Hesse after his death in 1962, but Freedman may have avoided the topic for want of appropriate archival material, those personal letters and diary entries which are favored in the work (and used to great and impressive effect, really).
At 400 pages, Pilgrim of Crisis is not a short read, and probably a difficult one to get through for those who are not already infatuated or at least highly familiar with Hesse's oeuvre, but I would recommend to anyone looking for something of a case study in German literary history from the late Romantic period through to the mid-20th century, also to one looking to understand the intense politics of the German and Swiss artistic milieus through WW1 and WW2. Surely this book will also strengthen one's appreciation for each of Hesse's novels as Freedman erects rich dives into the production and inspiration of each.

[BOYCOTT Musk-Trump USA · Rating 5 out of 5]

"In Tübingen, at barely eighteen, Hesse began to find his way out of the labyrinth. When the train curved through the Black Forest valley and he saw the towers of the university below, he knew he had made a new beginning. Doors were open--or at least that was how he felt as he dragged his suitcases onto the station platform. On the other side of the doors of that railroad station was the expanse of mountains and forests. There was the river not far away, and beyond the bridge lay the alleys and towers of the town. It was not home. It was no school and no institution. It was his own."
[Hermann Hesse arriving in Tübingen to begin his apprenticeship at Heckenhauer's Bookshop, 1895.]

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pilgrim of Crisis is a comprehensive insight into one of the 20th centuries most significant authors.

[Kristina Arreguin · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a journey Herman Hesse had! Great legacy and writer