author
Felix Salten
1869–1945
Best known for creating Bambi, he was a sharp-eyed journalist and storyteller whose work moved easily between literary Vienna and the natural world. His writing often paired close observation of animals with a deeper sense of danger, loss, and survival.
4 Audiobooks
Herr Wenzel auf Rehberg und sein Knecht Kaspar Dinckel
by Felix Salten
Bambi : A life in the woods
by Felix Salten
Josefine Mutzenbacher oder Die Geschichte einer Wienerischen Dirne von ihr selbst erzählt
by Felix Salten
Das österreichische Antlitz: Essays
by Felix Salten
About the author
Born in Budapest on September 6, 1869, and raised in Vienna, Felix Salten was the pen name of Siegmund Salzmann. He became part of the city’s lively literary scene while still young, working as a journalist, critic, and author among the writers associated with fin-de-siècle Vienna.
Salten wrote widely, but he is remembered above all for Bambi, a Life in the Woods, first published in 1923. Though many readers know the later film version, the novel itself is more layered and unsentimental, showing his gift for making the lives of animals feel vivid while also reflecting human fear, exile, and vulnerability.
He was born into a Jewish family and left Austria for Switzerland in 1939, where he died in Zurich on October 8, 1945. Today he remains an important Austrian author whose most famous book continues to reach readers in very different ways across generations.