Erich Maria Remarque

Erich Maria Remarque

Erich Maria Remarque (22 June 1898 – 25 September 1970), born Erich Paul Remark, was a German novelist who created many works about the terror of war. His best known novel All Quiet on the Western Front (1928), about German soldiers in the First World War, was made into an Oscar-winning movie. His book made him an enemy of theNazis, who burned many of his works.

Erich Maria Remarque was born on 22 June 1898 into a working class family in the German city of Osnabrück to Peter Franz Remark (b. 14 June 1867, Kaiserswerth) and Anna Maria (née Stallknecht; born 21 November 1871, Katernberg). 

At the age of 16, Remarque had made his first attempts at writing; this included essays, poems, and the beginnings of a novel that was finished later and published in 1920 as The Dream Room (Die Traumbude). When he published All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque changed his middle name in memory of his mother and reverted to the earlier spelling of the family name to dissociate himself from his novel Die Traumbude. The original family name, Remarque, had been changed to Remark by his grandfather in the 19th century.

In 1927, Remarque made a second literary start with the novel Station at the Horizon (Station am Horizont), which was serialised in the sports journal "Sport im Bild" for which Remarque was working. It was published in book form only in 1998. All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues) was written in 1927, but Remarque was not immediately able to find a publisher. The novel, published in 1929, described the experiences of German soldiers during World War I. A number of similar works followed; in simple, emotive language they described wartime and the postwar years.

In 1931, after finishing The Road Back (Der Weg zurück), Remarque bought a villa in Porto Ronco, Switzerland, planning to live both there and in France.

His next novel, Three Comrades (Drei Kameraden), spans the years of the Weimar Republic, from the hyperinflation of 1923 to the end of the decade. Remarque's fourth novel, Flotsam (in German titled Liebe deinen Nächsten, or Love Thy Neighbour), first appeared in a serial version in English translation in Collier's magazine in 1939, and Remarque spent another year revising the text for its book publication in 1941, both in English and German. His next novel, Arch of Triumph, first published in 1945 in English, and the next year in German as Arc de Triomphe, was another instant best-seller and reached worldwide sales of nearly five million. His last novel was Shadows in Paradise , he wrote it while living at 320 East 57th Street in New York City. The apartment building " played a prominent role in his novel".

List of works

Note: the dates of English publications are those of the first publications in book form.

Novels

• (1920) Die Traumbude. Ein Künstlerroman; English translation: The Dream Room
• (written 1924, published 1998) Gam
• (1928) Station am Horizont; English translation: Station at the Horizon
• (1929) Im Westen nichts Neues; English translation: All Quiet on the Western Front (1929)
• (1931) Der Weg zurück; English translation: The Road Back (1931)
• (1936) Drei Kameraden; English translation: Three Comrades (1937)
• (1939) Liebe deinen Nächsten; English translation: Flotsam (1941)
• (1945) Arc de Triomphe; English translation: Arch of Triumph (1945)
• (1952) Der Funke Leben; English translation: Spark of Life (1952)
• (1954) Zeit zu leben und Zeit zu sterben; English translation: A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1954)
• (1956) Der schwarze Obelisk; English translation: The Black Obelisk (1957)
• (1961) Der Himmel kennt keine Günstlinge (serialized as Geborgtes Leben); English translation: Heaven Has No Favorites (1961)
• (1962) Die Nacht von Lissabon; English translation: The Night in Lisbon (1964)
• (1970) Das gelobte Land; English translation: The Promised Land
• (1971) Schatten im Paradies; English translation: Shadows in Paradise (1972)

Other works

• (1931) Der Feind; English translation: The Enemy (1930–1931); short stories
• (1955) Der letzte Akt; English translation: The Last Act; screenplay
• (1956) Die letzte Station; English translation: Full Circle (1974); play
• (1988) Die Heimkehr des Enoch J. Jones; English translation: The Return of Enoch J. Jones; play
• (1994) Ein militanter Pazifist; English translation: A Militant Pacifist; interviews and essays

-WikiPedia