Carossa, Hans

Carossa, Hans

(häns kärôs`ä), 1878–1956, German poet and novelist. His autobiographical novel Childhood (1922, tr. 1930) and its sequels (1928, 1941) are noted for clear, graceful style. Führung und Geleit [guidance and companionship] (1933) contains warm vignettes of his literary mentors and friends, among them Mann, Rilke, and Hesse. Other works are A Roumanian Diary (1924, tr. 1929), the novel Doctor Gion (1931, tr. 1933), and volumes of poems (1938, 1949).

Carossa, Hans

 

Born Dec. 15, 1878, in Tölz; died Sept. 12, 1956, near Passau. German writer (Federal Republic of Germany). A physician by profession.

Carossa’s poetry (published in collections in 1910, 1916, 1946, 1948) strove for clarity, euphony, and precision of style and was characterized by Christian and apolitical themes. His prose was basically autobiographical and similarly avoided major social issues. His works include A Childhood (1922), A Rumanian Diary (1924; published in 1934 as War Diary), Doctor Gion (1931), The Year of Sweet Illusions (1941), and Different Worlds (1951). In 1941 he was elected president of the profascist European Writers’ Union. Carossa’s other works included travel notes (Italian Sketches, 1946, and Rome in Winter, 1947) and literary criticism, written from the standpoint of the Christian Democratic Party.

WORKS

Sämtliche Werke, vols. 1–2. [Zurich] 1963.

REFERENCES

Mel’nikov, D. “V gushche bor’by.” Novyi mir, 1955, no. 4.
Braun, F. Zeitgefdhrten. Munich, 1963. Pages 103–16.