Vicki Baum
Vicki Baum was an Austrian-American novelist, playwright, and scenarist, born Hedwig Baum in Vienna in 1888. She initially wrote in German until 1937, the year she became a U.S. citizen. Baum moved to the United States in 1931 to oversee the dramatic adaptation of her most famous work, "Grand Hotel," which became a significant success. In Hollywood, she established herself as a successful scenarist, promoting both the book and its film adaptation, and was pleasantly surprised by the warm reception she received from American audiences. "Grand Hotel" is notable for its innovative use of the framing technique, similar to Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," featuring a diverse array of characters in a post-World War I German hotel. Baum's storytelling weaves together complex characters from various social and economic backgrounds within a fast-paced narrative. Despite her contributions to literature and film, Baum's work has not received the extensive critical attention it deserves, highlighting the need for further exploration of her legacy.
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Subject Terms
Vicki Baum
Writer
- Born: January 24, 1888
- Birthplace: Vienna, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Austria)
- Died: August 29, 1960
- Place of death: Hollywood, California
Austrian-born American novelist
Biography
The career of Vicki Baum (bowm) as a novelist, playwright, and scenarist shows a craftsmanship and constancy deserving of much more critical attention than she has been given. Born Hedwig Baum in Vienna in 1888, she wrote in German until 1937, a year before she became an American citizen.
Baum came to the United States in 1931 to oversee the dramatization of Grand Hotel, her most successful work, and stayed. She found employment in Hollywood as a scenarist and was quite successful at promoting the book and the film. She enjoyed meeting the public and was both flattered and surprised at the reception she received from the American public. Her account of meeting a fan at a book signing who informed her that her son was also a writer is delightfully typical of Baum’s awareness of life’s complexity (the fan’s son proved to be Ernest Hemingway).
Grand Hotel, her best-known work, is one of the earliest modern adaptations of the framing technique used by Geoffrey Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales. A variation on her device (placing a group of diverse individuals in a post-World War I German hotel) has since been used quite successfully in many other novels, and the framing tale became a feature in numerous Hollywood “disaster” films. Any sentimentality in her novel is overshadowed by Baum’s ability to involve a number of interesting characters from a variety of social and economic backgrounds in a fast-moving plot, and the author and her work merit additional critical study.
Bibliography
King, Lynda J. Best-Sellers by Design: Vicki Baum and the House of Ullstein. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1988. King explains why Baum was such an exceptional literary phenomenon in the Berlin of the 1920’s and 1930’s. Includes rare black-and-white photographs of Baum.
Kunitz, Stanley J., and Howard Haycraft, eds. Twentieth Century Authors: A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature. New York: H. W. Wilson, 1942. Includes references to Baum’s novels.
The New York Times, August 30, 1960. This obituary offers some evaluation of Baum’s work.
Warfel, Harry R. American Novelists of Today. New York: American Book Company, 1951. Includes a good brief sketch of Baum.