Kisch, Egon Erwin

Kisch, Egon Erwin 

Born Apr. 29, 1885, in Prague; died there Mar. 31, 1948. Czech-German writer (wrote in German).

An officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I (1914–18), Kisch joined the Communist Party of Austria in 1918. He visited the USSR in 1925, 1926, 1930, and 1931 and wrote two political accounts of his experiences: Tsars, Priests, and Bolsheviks (1927) and A Changed Asia (1932; Russian translation, 1934). He fought in the International Brigade in Spain in 1937–38, lived in Mexico from 1940 to 1946, and returned to Prague in 1946. An artistic treatment of topical issues is a dominant feature of Kisch’s creative talent. In 1923 he compiled an anthology entitled Classical Journalism. In his articles and speeches, and especially in his book The Sensation Market (1942), Kisch affirmed the aesthetic and moral responsibility of the journalist.

WORKS

Gesammelte Werke in Einzelausgaben, vols. 1–7. Edited by B. Uhse and G. Kisch in eight volumes. Berlin, 1960–72.
In Russian translation:
Amerikanskii rai. Moscow, 1931.
Gody i liudi. Moscow, 1936.
Rasskazy ob Ispanii. Moscow, 1939.
Reportazhi. Moscow, 1964.

REFERENCES

Lunacharskii, A. V. “E. E. Kish.” Literaturnaia gazeta, 1929, no. 12.
Schlenstedt, D. E. E. Kisch: Leben und Werk. Berlin, 1968.