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Vicki Baum

Hedwig (Vicki) Baum (January 24, 1888 - August 29, 1960) was an Austrian writer. She was born in Vienna into a Jewish family. She's known for Menschen im Hotel ("People in a Hotel", 1929), one of her first international successes.

She began her artistic career as a musician, playing the harp. She studied at the Vienna Conservatory and played in an orchestra in Germany for three years. She later worked for the magazine Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung from the publishing company Ullstein-Velag in Berlin, as a journalist. She was married two times: first in 1914 in Austria with a journalist, that introduced her to the Viennese culture scene, and in 1916 with Richard Lert , conductor, her best friend since childhood. During World War I she worked for a short time as a nurse.

Baum began writing in her teens. Her first book, Fruhe Scatten, was published when she was 31. She is most famous for her 1929 novel Menschen Im Hotel which was made into an Academy Award winning film, Grand Hotel . Her memoire, It Was All Quite Different, was published posthumously in 1964. She wrote more than 50 novels, and at least ten were adapted as motion pictures in Hollywood.

Vicki Baum is considered one of the first modern best seller s author, and her books are reputated to be one of the first example of contemporary mainstream literature.

She is often quoted for some short sentences:

  • "A woman who is loved always has success".
  • "Fame always brings loneliness. Success is as ice cold and lonely as the north pole".
  • "Marriage always demands the greatest understanding of the art of insincerity possible between two human beings".
  • "Pity is the deadliest feeling that can be offered to a woman".
  • "To be a Jew is a destiny".

Vicki Baum died of leukemia in Hollywood, California, in 1960.


Last updated: 02-09-2005 19:47:56
Last updated: 03-01-2005 14:28:44