- Frank Thiess
Frank Thiess, born 1890 in Eluisenstein,
Russia nLivonia (nowLatvia ) and died 1977 inDarmstadt ,Germany , was a Germanwriter .Thiess grew up in
Berlin , where his family moved afterRussia annexedLivonia . He worked as a journalist for four years until he was enlisted into the German army inWorld War I . Discharged after a few months because of a heart condition, he returned toBerlin andjournalism . Within a few years, however. he decided to devote himself full-time to writing. His early novels were focussed on contemporary subjects —Time magazine once called him "the hot trumpet in Germany's jazz age." He married Florence Losey, an American singer. From the 1930s on, he concentrated onhistorical novel s.His 1936 novel, "Tsushima", translated into English as "The Voyage of Forgotten Men", recounted the epic journey of the
Russia n Second Pacific Squadron, under thecommand of AdmiralRozhestvensky , from theBaltic Sea to theSea of Japan , and its defeat by theJapan esefleet at theBattle of Tsushima in 1905.His two-part
novel , "Neapolitanische Legende" and "Caruso in Sorrent", was based on the life and career of the great Italiantenor ,Enrico Caruso .Thiess remained in
Germany during theNazi period, but there is no evidence that he joined theNazi Party . He became involved in a controversy involving the writerThomas Mann , who chose exile over remaining inGermany . Mann refused an invitation to return toGermany in 1946 and stated that he could not trust writers who remained inGermany under theNazi s. Thiess responded that those anti-Nazi German writers who stayed "have found in themselves a spiritual resistance ... out of which a new Germany must be formed."Bibliography
Novels:
*"Claudia" (1913)
*"Der Tod von Falern" (1921)
*"Angelika ten Swaart" (1923)
*"Die Verdammten" (English title: "The Devil's Shadow") (1923)
*"Das Gesicht des Jahrhunderts, Briefe an Zeitgenossen" (1923)
*"Der Leibheftige" (English title: "Design for Living") (1924)
*"Frauenraub" (English title: "Interlude") (1927) (revised as "Katharina Winter" (1949))
*"Johanna unde Esther" (1933) (revised as "Gäa" (1957))
*"Tsushima" (English title: "The Voyage of Forgotten Men")(1936)
*"Das Reich der Dämonen" (1941)
*"Neapolitanische Legende" (English title: "Neapolitan Legend") (1942)
*"Caruso in Sorrent" (1946)
*"Die Strassen des Labyrinths" (1951)
*"Die grieschischen Kaiser " (1959)
*"Sturz nach oben " (1961)
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