Spitteler, Carl

Spitteler, Carl

(born April 24, 1845, Liestal, Switz.—died Dec. 29, 1924, Lucerne) Swiss poet. He was a private tutor in Russia and Finland before he wrote his first great poetic work, the mythical epic Prometheus und Epimetheus (1881). His second great work was the epic The Olympic Spring (1900–05), in which he found full scope for bold invention and vividly expressive power. Late in life he rewrote his first epic as Prometheus the Long-Suffering (1924). Though known for his pessimistic yet heroic verse, he also wrote lyrical poems, stories, novels, and essays. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1919.

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Spitteler, Carl 

(pen name, Felix Tandem). Born Apr. 24, 1845, in Liestal; died Dec. 29, 1924, in Luzern. Swiss writer. Wrote in German.

Spitteler studied law and theology at the universities of Basel, Zürich, and Heidelberg. From 1871 to 1879 he lived in Russia. In Prometheus and Epimetheus (1880–81; verse version Prometheus the Sufferer, 1924), an epic written in rhythmic prose, Spitteler used metaphors that paralleled the conflicts and contradictions of his epoch. His chief work, the epic poem Olympic Spring (1900–05; revised ed., 1910), is also characterized by an allegorical modernization of classical myth. His novel Imago (1906) has as its central concern the intensification in bourgeois society of the conflict between the artist and the burgher. Spitteler received a Nobel Prize in 1919.

WORKS

Gesammelte Werke, vols. 1–10. Zürich-Stuttgart, 1945–58.

REFERENCES

Iur’eva, L. M. “Karl Shpitteler.” In Literatura Shveitsarii: Ocherki. Moscow, 1969.
Hoffler, T. Carl Spitteler. Jena, 1926.
Rolland, R. Compagnons de route. Paris, 1961.