Gustav Meyrink
Gustav Meyrink was an Austrian writer, born on June 19, 1868, in Vienna, who is best known for his exploration of the mystical and supernatural in literature. He had a diverse educational background, attending various schools in Germany and Czechoslovakia. After co-founding a bank in Prague, Meyrink's life took a dramatic turn following a personal crisis in 1891, which led him to delve into the occult and join several secret societies, including Theosophy. He adopted a Bohemian lifestyle and changed his surname to Meyrink, eventually moving to Germany where he became a notable contributor to the satirical journal Simplicissimus.
Meyrink's literary career began in earnest with the publication of his first novel, "Der Golem," in 1915, which draws upon a Jewish legend from Prague about a creature made from clay. He continued to publish works that often combined elements of horror and fantasy, including "Das gruene Gesicht" and "Walpurgisnacht." His writing reflects his interests in esoteric subjects, and he eventually converted to Buddhism in 1927. Gustav Meyrink passed away on December 4, 1932, but his legacy endures, particularly through "The Golem," which remains influential in horror literature.
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Gustav Meyrink
Author
- Born: June 19, 1868
- Birthplace: Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria)
- Died: December 4, 1932
- Place of death: Starnberg, Germany
Biography
Gustav Meyer was born on June 19, 1868, in Vienna, Austria- Hungary (now Austria). He was the illegitimate son of Friedrich Gottlob Karl Baron von Varnbüler von und zu Hemmingen, Minister of State for Württemberg from 1864 to 1870, and Maria Meyer, a Bavarian actress. Young Gustav attended Wilhelm High School in Munich, the Johanneum in Hamburg, and studied at the Gymnasium in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now in the Czech Republic). In 1888, he cofounded a bank, Meyer and Morgenstern, in Prague.
In 1891, Meyer suffered a nervous breakdown and unsuccessfully attempted suicide. Having stared death in the face and survived, he took an interest in the occult. During the last decade of the nineteenth century, he joined several secret societies and became a founding member of the Theosophical Lodge of the Blue Star. He also took great interest in the Kabbala, Freemasonry, yoga, alchemy, and other esoteric subjects. He experimented with hashish, lived a Bohemian lifestyle—in the area that gave rise to the appellation—and at some point changed his surname to Meyrink.
Despite his changed circumstances, Meyrink remained with his bank until 1902, when he was wrongfully accused of fraud. He then retired to Germany, where he wrote sketches and parodies for the influential satirical journal Simplicissimus, published between 1896 and 1944, joining such contributors as Thomas Mann, Frank Wedekind, and Rainer Maria Rilke, and cartoonists like Thomas Heine and Olaf Gulbransson. During his time with the periodical, Meyrink published Der heisse Soldat, und andere Geschichten (1903), a collection of short stories.
In 1906, Meyrink left the magazine and moved to Bavaria, where he translated selected works from English to German of authors Charles Dickens and Rudyard Kipling, and wrote fiction. He published prose pieces such as Das Wachsfigurenkabinett Sonderbare Geschichten (1907) and Des deutschen Spie�ers Wunderhorn (1913). His first novel was Der Golem (The Golem, 1928), a retelling of the Jewish legend of Rabbi Löw’s blasphemous creation of a homunculus in the Prague ghetto of the sixteenth century. Meyrink’s atmospheric, symbolic tale of an artificial man running amok was serialized in 1913-1914 in Die Weissen Blatter, and published in book form in 1915; it has served as the basis for many subsequent works about human creations run wild.
Meyrink, who lived after 1911 in Starnberg, Germany, continued to publish novels and short stories of a fantastic, supernatural nature until the end of his life. His better-known works include Das gruene Gesicht, 1916 (The Green Face, 1992), Walpurgisnacht: Phantastischer Roman (1917), Der weisse Dominikaner, 1921 (The White Dominicans, 1994), and Der Engel vom westlichen Fenster, 1927 (The Angel of the West Window, 1991). In 1927, he converted to Buddhism. Gustav (Meyer) Meyrink died December 4, 1932, at the age of sixty-four. Though much of his work has been forgotten, Meyrink’s horror storyThe Golem, recounting a lump of clay brought to life to wreak havoc, still resonates to this day.