Alexander Lernet-Holenia

Alexander Lernet-Holenia (October 21, 1897 Vienna – July 3, 1976 Vienna) was an Austrian writer of novels, poetry and historical studies. He was born as Alexander Marie Norbert Lernet, but changed his name - his mother's maiden name hyphened to his own - when he was formally adopted by some wealthy relatives of his mother in 1920. He used also the pseudonyms Clemens Neydisser and G. T. Dampierre.

In 1915 he finished high-school in Waidhofen an der Ybbs and began to study Law at the University of Vienna, but soon volunteered for the army and fought in World War I from September 1915 until the end. In 1923 he converted to the Roman Catholic faith. In 1926 he was awarded the Kleist Prize and in 1927 the Goethe Prize of the city of Bremen.

Works

* "Pastorale" (1921, poetry)
* "Kanzonnair" (1923, poetry)
* "Ollapotrida" (1926, play)
* "Szene als Einleitung zu einer Totenfeier für Rainer Maria Rilke" (1927, play)
* "Gelegenheit macht Liebe" (also "Quiproquo", as Clemens Neydisser, with Stefan Zweig, 1928, play)
* "Die Abenteuer eines jungen Herrn in Polen" (1931, novel)
* "Jo und der Herr zu Pferde" (1933, novel)
* "Ich war Jack Mortimer" (1933, novel)
* "Die Standarte" (1934, novel)
* "Der Baron Bagge" (1936, novella)
* "Die Auferstehung des Maltravers" ("The Resurrection of Maltravers", 1936, novel)
* "Der Mann im Hut" (1937, novel)
* "Mars im Widder" (1941, novel)
* "Beide Sizilien" (1942, novel)
* "Germanien" (1946, poetry)
* "Der zwanzigste Juli" (1947, short story)
* "An klingenden Ufern" (1948, screenplay)
* "Der Graf von Saint Germain" (1948, novel)
* "Der Graf Luna" (1955, novel)
* "Die vertauschten Briefe" (1958, novel)
* "Prinz Eugen" (1960, biography)
* "Das Halsband der Königin" (Paul Zsolnay Verlag, Hamburg/Vienna, 1962, historical study on the Affair of the diamond necklace)
* "Die weiße Dame" (1965, novel)
* "Die Thronprätendenten" (1965, play)
* "Pilatus. Ein Komplex" (1967, novel)
* "Die Hexen" (1969, novel)
* "Die Beschwörung" (1974, novel, as G. T. Dampierre)
* "Mona Lisa", by Alexander Lernet-Holenia, the story of Monsieur de Bougainville, the cavalier who fell in love with the girl by seeing the painting and attempts to find her. It is in "German Stories and Tales", the first of a series published by Alfred A. Knopf. "Mona Lisa" is from DREI GROSSE LIEBESGESCHICTEN, copyright 1950, by Morgarten Verlag, Conzett & Huber, used by permission of author and publisher for German Stories and Tales. It was translated to English by Jane B. Greene.