author
Ferdinand Prantner
1817–1871
A Viennese civil servant who also built a literary life under the pen name Leo Wolfram, he wrote popular novels while working inside the Austrian state’s cipher service. His career brings together bureaucracy, music, and fiction in a distinctly 19th-century way.
1 Audiobook
Dissolving Views: Romanfragmente von Leo Wolfram.
by Ferdinand Prantner
About the author
Born in Vienna in 1817, Ferdinand Prantner studied law at the University of Vienna before entering government service in the mid-1830s. He spent much of his working life in the Austrian state’s cipher and foreign-ministry offices, while also publishing as a writer under the pseudonym Leo Wolfram.
Reference works describe him as both a civil servant and a novelist, and some also note his skill as a zither player. He is especially associated with the multi-volume novel Dissolving Views and with other fiction published in the middle decades of the 19th century.
Prantner died in Vienna on April 28, 1871. A small but interesting figure in Austrian literary history, he stands out for balancing an official career with a steady life in print.