Walter Schmiele (12 April 1909 in Swinemünde – 21 October 1998 in

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

) was a German writer and translator.

Life

Schmiele grew up in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

. He studied

German literature German literature () comprises those literature, literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy a ...

, philosophy and history at the universities of Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Vienna and Rostock. He earned his Ph.D. in Frankfurt, with his dissertation on

Theodor Storm Hans Theodor Woldsen Storm (; 14 September 18174 July 1888), commonly known as Theodor Storm, was a German writer. He is considered to be one of the most important figures of German realism. Life Storm was born in the small town of Husum, on th ...

. Among his teachers were

Friedrich Gundolf Friedrich Gundolf, born Friedrich Leopold Gundelfinger (20 June 1880 – 12 July 1931) was a German-Jewish literary scholar and poet and one of the best known academics of the Weimar Republic. Education Gundolf, who was the son of a mathemat ...

Karl Jaspers Karl Theodor Jaspers (, ; 23 February 1883 – 26 February 1969) was a German-Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher who had a strong influence on modern theology, psychiatry, and philosophy. After being trained in and practicing psychiatry, Jasper ...

Paul Tillich Paul Johannes Tillich (August 20, 1886 – October 22, 1965) was a German-American Christian existentialist philosopher, religious socialist, and Lutheran Protestant theologian who is widely regarded as one of the most influential theologi ...

Karl Mannheim Karl Mannheim (born Károly Manheim, 27 March 1893 – 9 January 1947) was an influential Hungarian sociologist during the first half of the 20th century. He is a key figure in classical sociology, as well as one of the founders of the sociolo ...

, and

Ernst Kantorowicz Ernst Hartwig Kantorowicz (May 3, 1895 – September 9, 1963) was a German historian of medieval political and intellectual history and art, known for his 1927 book '' Kaiser Friedrich der Zweite'' on Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, and ''The Kin ...

. Still a student, he began his freelance career for many newspapers. Between 1934 and 1941, he contributed more than 80 feature essays to the "

Frankfurter Zeitung The ''Frankfurter Zeitung'' () was a German-language newspaper that appeared from 1856 to 1943. It emerged from a market letter that was published in Frankfurt. In Nazi Germany, it was considered the only mass publication not completely controlle ...

". He began living in Darmstadt in 1940. After the Second World War, he worked as a freelance journalist and literary critic for many newspapers and radio stations. He wrote poetry and short stories (published in the

Reclam Reclam Verlag is a German publishing house, established in Leipzig in 1828 by Anton Philipp Reclam (1807–1896).Anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...

"Deutsche Erzähler der Gegenwart", ("German Contemporary Storytellers") edited by Willi Fehse, 1960)and in the Penguin "Twentieth-Century German Verse". Schmiele published essays and translated poetry and prose from the English language. His translation of

Confessions of an English Opium-Eater ''Confessions of an English Opium-Eater'' ( 1821) is an autobiographical account written by Thomas De Quincey, about his laudanum addiction and its effect on his life. The ''Confessions'' was "the first major work De Quincey published and the o ...

("Bekenntnisse eines englischen Opiumessers") von

Thomas De Quincey Thomas Penson De Quincey (; 15 August 17858 December 1859) was an English writer, essayist, and literary critic, best known for his ''Confessions of an English Opium-Eater'' (1821). Many scholars suggest that in publishing this work De Quince ...

, first published in 1947 (Parzeller) was re-issued by Goverts (1962), DTV (1965), Medusa (1982) and Insel (2009). In the 1950s Walter Schmiele initiated the radio program "Vom Geist der Zeit" (Spirit of Times) for the Hessischen Rundfunk and contributed many scripts to the program. In 1951-1953, he was editor of the "Neue literarische Welt". From 1956 to 1962, he was Secretary-General of the German

P.E.N. PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internatio ...

-Centre, a position in which he organized the 1959 International P.E.N. Congress held in Frankfurt. His 1961 published

Monography A monograph is a specialist work of writing (in contrast to reference works) or exhibition on a single subject or an aspect of a subject, often by a single author or artist, and usually on a scholarly subject. In library cataloging, ''monograph ...

Henry Miller Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American novelist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, social criticism, philosophical ref ...

(rororo) was regularly re-issued since then and was translated in various languages (among others in French, Japanese and Dutch). In 1990, Schmiele edited a collection of texts by

Kasimir Edschmid Kasimir Edschmid, born Eduard Hermann Wilhelm Schmid, (5 October 1890 in Darmstadt – 31 August 1966 in Vulpera (Switzerland)) was a German expressionist writer. His work was part of the literature event in the art competition at the 1928 ...

in the "Darmstädter Schriften" series ("Kasimir Edschmid, Essay – Rede – Feuilleton").

Personal works

* 1946: Unvergessliches Gesicht. Fünf Prosastücke * 1949: Englische Dichtung deutsch. * 1953: Englische Geisteswelt * 1954: Dichter über Dichtung * 1961: Stefan George * 1961: Henry Miller * 1963: Die Milch der Wölfin * 1963: Nietzsche: der gute Europäer * 1963: Über Ernst Jünger * 1963: Über Karl Jaspers * 1963: Dandy und Provokateur * 1963: Zwei Essays zur literarischen Lage * 1964: Versuch einer Sinnbestimmung des modernen Irrationalismus * 1966: Zur Geschichte der Utopie * 1984: Poesie der Welt, Nordamerika * 1985: Poesie der Welt, England * 1990: Kasimir Edschmid, Essay - Rede – Feuilleton * 2010: Mit wenigen Strichen. Porträts und Glossen

Translations

* 1948:

John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculo ...

, "Hyperion" * 1949: "Englische Dichtung deutsch", von Blake bis Yeats; * 1947:

De Quincey Thomas Penson De Quincey (; 15 August 17858 December 1859) was an English writer, essayist, and literary critic, best known for his ''Confessions of an English Opium-Eater'' (1821). Many scholars suggest that in publishing this work De Quince ...

: "Bekenntnisse eines englischen Opiumessers" * 1960:

Ferlinghetti Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti (March 24, 1919 – February 22, 2021) was an American poet, painter, social activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. The author of poetry, translations, fiction, theatre, art criticism, an ...

, "Sie"

Awards

* Lyrikpreis des Südverlags 1949 * Johann-Heinrich-Merck-Ehrung der Stadt Darmstadt 1970

References

External links