Friedrich Torberg

As he himself once admitted, he always took on too much at once, and since nothing he undertook ever convincingly failed, he never stopped doing so until the end of his life. Friedrich Torberg (1908-1979) was a literary phenomenon, a distinctive and incomparable author who significantly shaped the literary and cultural-political life of Austria and Germany in the 20th century. Torberg wrote poems, novels, parodies, theater and literary critiques, essays, travel and sports reports, cabaret texts and political commentaries, film scripts and collections of anecdotes; he edited the works of Fritz von Herzmanowsky-Orlando, translated Ephraim Kishon's satires into German (thus paving the way for their immense success), and produced radio and television programs. In addition, he maintained extensive correspondence. David Axmann, currently probably the most renowned Torberg expert, dedicates the first comprehensive biography to this multi-talented individual for his 100th birthday. With scholarly precision and feuilletonistic elegance, Axmann sketches the life and work of this Jewish writer from Austria: from his childhood and youth in Vienna and Prague, from the debut success of "Schüler Gerber" through his emigration period in Hollywood and New York, to his return to Vienna. His journalistic work as editor of the magazine FORVM is illuminated, as is the success of his later works "Süßkind von Trimberg," "Die Tante Jolesch" and her "Erben," with which Torberg put a brilliant finishing touch to an important cultural era.


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