Austrian writer Gustav Meyrink is best known as the author of the mystical novel Golem (1914), which became a bestseller during the First World War. Meyrink, like Franz Kafka, is a prominent representative of the so-called Prague group of German-speaking writers.
Life before literary career
Gustav Meyrink (real name - Meyer) was born on January 19, 1868 in Vienna. Gustav was one of those who were called illegitimate in those days. His mother was an artist, her name was Maria Wilhelmina Adelheid Mayer. And the father was the Conservative Minister Karl Warnbüller von Hemmingham.
As a child, Gustav often moved from city to city (this was due to his mother's profession - she traveled a lot with her troupe). In 1883, he ended up in Prague, and ended up living here for about twenty years.
In 1888, Gustav graduated from the Prague Trade Academy and became one of the founders of the Mayer and Morgenstern bank. For a time this bank was very successful.
In the early 1890s, Meyrink married Edwiga Maria Zertl. However, this relationship was not happy. Soon enough, Meyrink began to feel weary about them and did not officially divorce until 1905 only because of the stubbornness of his wife and some subtleties of a legal nature.
In 1892, 24-year-old Gustav Meyrink suffered a deep personal crisis. At one point, he even decided to voluntarily leave this life. When Meyrink, being in his room, was already preparing to commit suicide, someone thrust a brochure called Life After Death into the crack under the door. Such a strange coincidence impressed him greatly and kept him from making an irreparable step.
After that, Meyrink began to study Theosophy, Kabbalah, and mystical Eastern teachings. It is known that in the same 1892, someone reported to the police in Prague that Meyrink was using witchcraft to succeed in financial affairs. Gustav was arrested and spent over two months behind bars. As a result, his innocence was proven, but this incident still put an end to his career as a financier.
The first collections of stories
In the 1900s, Meyrink began writing short stories for the Simplicissimus magazine. And already in these early works, he showed himself as a writer with an extraordinary talent. In 1903, Meyrink's first collection, The Hot Soldier and Other Stories, was published, and in 1904, the second, The Orchid. Strange stories."
In 1905, Meyrink (by this time he had moved from Prague to Vienna) remarried - this time Philomena Berndt became his wife. In 1906, Philomena gave birth to a daughter, Felicitas, Sibylla, from the writer, and in 1908, a son, Harro Fortunat.
Meyrink's third collection of short stories - "Wax Figures" - was published in the same 1908. It is worth noting that literary creativity then did not bring the writer a lot of money, therefore, in order to feed his family, he was also engaged in translations. Among other things, he translated into German the works of the great Charles Dickens.
In 1913 Meyrink's next book, The Magic Horn of the German Philistine, was published. In it, the best works from the three previous collections were supplemented with new, never-before-published stories.
Meyrink's novels
The Austrian writer published his debut (and most famous) novel "Golem" in 1914. In this novel, the story is told on behalf of a certain person who, through an oversight, once took someone else's hat instead of his. After examining it, he saw that the name of its owner - Athanasius Pernatus - was written on it. Then something strange began to happen: he began to have fragmentary dreams where he was the very same Pernat - a stone cutter from the Jewish ghetto in Prague … mentioned only in passing.
"Golem" sold a record circulation of 100,000 copies at that time. Considerable (albeit somewhat less) popularity was also enjoyed by Meyrink's next two novels - "Green Face" (its circulation was about 40,000 copies) and "Walpurgis Night".
By 1920, the writer's financial situation improved, and he was able to purchase a villa in Starnberg. Meyrink lived on it for eight years. It was during this period that he created such novels as The White Dominican and The Angel of the West Window. They were met by contemporaries without much excitement, real interest in them arose only in the middle of the 20th century. Many critics recognize "Angel of the West Window" as the most outstanding novel after "Golem" by an Austrian writer.
Last years
In 1927, Meyrink retired from writing, converted to Buddhism and devoted himself to meditation practices. There is evidence that he did a lot of yoga, and this allegedly allowed him to cope with the pain in the spine that tormented him.
In early 1932, Meyrink's son Fortunat was seriously injured while skiing and was confined to a wheelchair with no hope of recovery. This was unbearable for Fortunat, and he took his own life on June 12, 1932. At that time, he was only 24 years old (at the same age, as already noted, Gustav himself attempted suicide).
Gustav Meyrink died a few months after the death of Fortunat - on December 4 of the same 1932. The writer was buried in the cemetery in Starnberg.
