Oskar Maria Graf

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Biography

Oskar Maria Graf was born in 1894 in Berg, Bavaria. He was the youngest of eleven children. His father was a baker. He left home for Munich when seventeen, not least because his beloved father had died. He worked various jobs but was always determined to be a writer. He had had a few poems published in magazines by the time World War I broke out but then had to join the army. However, he laughed at all the orders he was given and was committed to an insane asylum, being released in 1916. Professor Oskar Graf, a war artist, paid him to change his name and he added the Maria to his name. He earned his money in various jobs, including organising parties and on the black market, though he was publishing poetry and short stories. He gradually switched to prose works and an early memoir was published. He continued to publish other prose works and his reputation gradually grew. However, it was not till Wir sind Gefangene was published in 1927 and reviewed by Thomas Mann, that his fame grew throughout Germany.

While he continued to write, he was involved in left-wing politics though he never joined a political party. In 1933, he went into exile, first to Austria, then Czechoslovakia and finally to the United States. While in Austria, he wrote his famous open letter Verbrennt mich (Burn Me) about the Nazi book burnings. His work did not do well in the United States and he never learned English. However, because Germany was divided, he did not return to Germany after the war. He eventually became a US citizen but his books did not do well in either the United States or Germany, till after his death in 1967.

Bibliography

1918 Die Revolutionäre (poetry)
1919 Amen und Anfang (poetry)
1922 Frühzeit (memoirs)
1921 Ua-Pua! (stories)
1921 Maria Uhden (biography)
1922 Zur freundlichen Erinnerung (stories)
1924 Bayrisches Lesebücherl (literature)
1924 Die Traumdeuter (stories)
1925 Die Chronik von Flechting (novel)
1926 Finsternis (stories)
1926 Wir sind Gefangene (Prisoners All) (memoirs)
1927 Wunderbare Menschen (autobiography)
1927 Wir sind Gefangene ( We are Pristine)(autobiography)
1927 Licht und Schatten (stories)
1928 Bayrisches Dekameron (stories)
1925 Die Heimsuchung (novel)
1927 Im Winkel des Lebens (stories)
1929 Kalendergeschichten. Geschichten aus Stadt und Land (stories)
1931 Bolwieser (The Station Master) (novel)
1932 Notizbuch des Provinzschriftstellers Oskar Maria Graf (satire)
1932 Einer gegen alle (The Wolf) (novel)
1932 Dorfbanditen (memoirs)
1935 Der harte Handel (novel)
1936 Der Abgrund (later: Die gezählten Jahre) (novel)
1937 Anton Sittinger (Anton Sittinger) (novel)
1938 Der Quasterl (stories)
1940 Das Leben meiner Mutter (The Life of My Mother) (first published in English translation)
1947 Unruhe um einen Friedfertigen (novel)
1948 Mitmenschen (stories)
1949 Die Eroberung der Welt (later: Die Erben des Untergangs) (novel)
1953 Menschen aus meiner Jugend auf dem Dorfe (stories)
1954 Der ewige Kalender (poetry)
1959 Die Flucht ins Mittelmäßige (novel)
1961 An manchen Tagen (speeches, essays)
1962 Der große Bauernspiegel (stories)
1962 Größtenteils schimpflich (memoirs)
1962 Altmodische Gedichte eines Dutzendmenschen (Old-Fashioned Poems of an Ordinary Man) (poetry)
1962 Jäher Schrecken (poetry)
1964 Er nannte sich Banscho (novel)
1966 Gelächter von außen. Aus meinem Leben 1918-1933 (memoirs)
1974 Reise nach Sowjetrußland 1934 (travel)
1974 Das bayrische Dekameron (stories)
1994 3 Bäckergeschichten von Oskar Maria Graf nebst 150 Rezepten für die Brezelbäckerei (stories and recipes)
1994 Gesammelte Erzählungen (stories)
1995 Minutengeschichten (stories)
1996 Ich schwebe von Dingen geschaukelt und lebe mich wund: ausgewählte Gedichte (poetry)
2004 Die Weihnachtsgans und andere Wintergeschichten (stories)
2007 Manchmal kommt es, dass wir Mörder sein müssen … Gesammelte Gedichte (poetry)

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Oskar Maria Graf

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