Salten, Felix

(pseudonym of Siegmund Salzmann). Born Sept. 6, 1869, in Budapest; died Oct. 8, 1945, in Zürich. Austrian writer, journalist, critic.

In 1938, Salten emigrated to the USA and then moved to Switzerland. He is the author of the antimilitaristic drama Rank and File (1899), the antimonarchist satire The Book of Kings (1905), and the collections of essays The Viennese Nobility (1905) and The Austrian Appearance (1909). His realistic novellas (“Little Veronica,” 1903), novels (Olga Frogemut, 1910; The Ringing Bell, 1914), and dramas (From the Other Shore, 1908; The Children of Happiness, 1916) depicted the moral degradation of man under the conditions of bourgeois society. Salten’s best works about animals are the tale “Bambi” (1923; Russian translation, 1957; animated film by W. Disney, 1942) and his “zoological” novels (The Florentine Dog, 1921, and others).