Herman Hesse

Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) was a German-born Swiss novelist, poet, and essayist. Born in Calw, Württemberg, he grew up in a pietist missionary family and later trained as a bookseller, experiences that shaped his lifelong interest in spirituality, self-discovery, and the tensions between individual freedom and social conformity. His major novels include *Demian* (1919), *Siddhartha* (1922), and *Steppenwolf* (1927), along with *The Glass Bead Game* (1943). Hesse became a Swiss citizen in 1923 and lived for decades in Montagnola, in Ticino. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946.