Thomas Mann

The German author won the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature. The award was largely in recognition of his epic, symbol-laden masterpiece The Magic Mountain.

Published in 1924, the novel follows a young engineer who goes to visit a tuberculosis sanatorium in the Swiss Alps and ends up staying for seven years. The book is a profound philosophical examination of European society before World War I.

Mann is famous for his 1912 novella Death in Venice. The story details the obsession of an aging writer with a beautiful young boy named Tadzio staying at the same hotel.

No, he fled Europe in 1933 due to his opposition to the Nazi regime. He spent the World War II years in exile in the United States, actively speaking out against fascism.