Zweig, Stefan (1881-1942)

Zweig, Stefan (1881-1942)

Austrian playwright, author, and biographer, of Jewish parentage, best known for his psychological portraits of literary and historical figures.

Among his works are Paul Verlaine ( 1913); Emile Verhaeren ( 1914); Jeremiah ( 1917), an allegorical play attacking war; Romain Rolland ( 1921); Passion and Pain ( 1925); Invisible Collection ( 1926); Conflicts ( 1927), three psychological novelettes; Adepts in Self-Portraiture ( 1928), on Casanova , Stendhal, and Tolstoi; Three Masters ( 1930), on Balzac, Dickens, and Dostoyevsky; Joseph Fouché ( 1930); Mental Healers ( 1932), on Franz Mesmer, Mary Baker Eddy, and Sigmund Freud; Marie Antoinette ( 1932); Kaleidoscope ( 1934), stories; Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles ( 1935); The Right to Heresy ( 1936); Conqueror of the Seas ( 1938), on Magellan; The Tide of Fortune ( 1940); Brazil, Land of the Future ( 1941); etc. As an expatriate in Brazil, Stefan Zweig took his own life. His autobiography appeared under the title of The World of Yesterday ( 1942). Cf. also Stefan Zweig by Friderike Zweig ( 1946).