MANN, THOMAS

born June 6, 1875, Lbeck, Ger. died Aug. 12, 1955, near Zrich, Switz. Thomas Mann German novelist and essayist whose early novelsBuddenbrooks (1900), Der Tod in Venedig (1912; Death in Venice), and Der Zauberberg (1924; The Magic Mountain)earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929. Additional reading The most complete collection of Mann's work is Gesammelte Werke, 13 vol. (196074). Hans Brgin, Das Werk Thomas Manns (1959), is a bibliography. There are many volumes of Mann's correspondence, the most complete being Briefe, ed. by Erika Mann, 3 vol. (196165), selected and edited by his daughter. Letters of Thomas Mann, 18891955, compiled and trans. by Richard Winston and Clara Winston, 2 vol. (1970), is also recommended. Autobiographisches, compiled by Erika Mann (1968), contains his autobiographical essays.Biographies by family members include Erika Mann, The Last Year of Thomas Mann (1958, reissued 1970; also published as The Last Year, 1958; originally published in German, 1956); and Viktor Mann, Wir waren fnf, 3rd rev. ed. (1973), a description of the childhood home by his younger brother. Hans Brgin and Hans-Otto Mayer, Thomas Mann: A Chronicle of His Life (1969; originally published in German, 1965), gives a detailed account. Nigel Hamilton, The Brothers Mann (1978), on Heinrich and Thomas, is especially good. Richard Winston, Thomas Mann: The Making of an Artist, 18751911 (1981, reprinted 1990), covers Mann's early years. Biographies written with access to Mann's posthumously published diaries include Anthony Heilbut, Thomas Mann: Eros and Literature (1995), focusing on Mann's life and works through his fifties; Ronald Hayman, Thomas Mann (1995); and Donald Prater, Thomas Mann (1995).Klaus W. Jonas, Fifty Years of Thomas Mann Studies (1955), reissued 1969), gives a bibliography of contemporary critical studies. Georg Lukcs (Gyrgy Lukcs), Essays on Thomas Mann (1964, reprinted 1978; originally published in German, 1949), presents Marxist essays that are shrewdly critical as well as admiring. Charles Neider (ed.), The Stature of Thomas Mann (1947, reissued 1968); and Erich Kahler, The Orbit of Thomas Mann (1969), collections of essays, are also recommended. Broad studies of his works are Esther H. Lesr, Thomas Mann's Short Fiction, ed. by Mitzi Brunsdale (1989), an examination of Mann's intellectual development through his works; Martin Travers, Thomas Mann (1992); and Irvin Stock, Ironic Out of Love: The Novels of Thomas Mann (1994). Recent in-depth treatments of individual works include Martin Swales, Buddenbrooks: Family Life as the Mirror of Social Change (1991); T.J. Reed, Death in Venice: Making and Unmaking a Master (1994); and Michael Beddow, Thomas Mann: Doctor Faustus (1994). Two collections of criticism on individual works are Hugh Ridley, The Problematic Bourgeois: Twentieth-Century Criticism on Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks and The Magic Mountain (1994); and John Francis Fetzer, Changing Perceptions of Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus: Criticism, 19471992 (1996).