In 1972, Heinrich Böll became the first German to win the
Nobel Prize for literature since Thomas Mann in 1929. Born in
Cologne, in 1917, Böll was reared in a liberal Catholic, pacifist
family. Drafted into the Wehrmacht, he served on the Russian and
French fronts and was wounded four times before he found himself in
an American prison camp. After the war he enrolled at the
University of Cologne, but dropped out to write about his
shattering experiences as a soldier. His first novel, The Train Was
on Time, was published in 1949, and he went on to become one of the
most prolific and important of post-war German writers. His
best-known novels include Billiards at Half-Past Nine (1959), The
Clown (1963), Group Portrait with Lady (1971), and The Safety Net
(1979). In 1981 he published a memoir, What’s to Become of the Boy?
or: Something to Do with Books. Böll served for several years as
the president of International P.E.N. and was a leading defender of
the intellectual freedom of writers throughout the world. He died
in June 1985.
Translator Leila Vennewitz was a distinguished translator of
many German authors including Uwe Johnson, Hermann Hesse, Uwe Timm,
Alexander Kluge, and Alfred Andersch.
"Böll has feelingly symbolized a guilty Germany doing pennace for its sins through suffering and death."--TIme
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