Stefan Zweig

Born in Vienna in 1881 to a prosperous Jewish family, he studied at the University of Vienna and began publishing young. He went on to work across several forms — novellas, essays, plays, and biographies — and became especially admired for psychologically sharp stories and portraits of figures from history and culture.

At the height of his career in the 1920s and 1930s, he was among the most translated and internationally popular writers in the world. His life was deeply shaped by war and exile: after the rise of Nazism, he left Austria, lived in Britain and later the Americas, and wrote with increasing sadness about the collapse of the cosmopolitan Europe he had loved.

He died in Petrópolis, Brazil, in 1942. Today he remains widely read for works such as Chess Story, Amok, and The World of Yesterday, which together show his gift for suspense, compassion, and clear-eyed reflection on culture in crisis.