Legacy: The Artists Behind The Legends

Hermann Karl Hesse was a German novelist, poet, and water color painter active from the late 19th to early 20th centuries, and while his works have run relatively under the radar in the Western Hemisphere, Hesse did win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946. Some of his best known works include Demian, Siddhartha, The Glass Bead Game, and Steppenwolf, which yes, to answer your question, the Canadian-American rock band from the 60s and 70s did name their group after Hesse’s incredible tale of discovery. Hesse’s writing was often an exploration of an individual’s search for authenticity, self-knowledge, and spirituality, paired with an effort to break out of the established rules and modes of civilization. Let me be very honest about Hesse’s initial reception amongst readers – his writing was never quite popular amongst critics – in fact, it was often described as ‘inaccessible’ for the majority American readers (MUCH was lost in translations back then). During a time of world wars, much of Hesse’s work tends t