SCHMIDT, ARNO (OTTO)

born Jan. 18, 1914, Hamburg died June 3, 1979, Celle, W.Ger. German writer whose novels and short stories were highly experimental, employing complex structure, idiosyncratic orthography, and near-pornography. He was educated at the University of Breslau, worked in a textile business (193439), and while in the army in World War II was captured by the British and held as a prisoner of war until 1945. He turned to writing in 194647 and published in 1949 Leviathan, a collection of short stories in which God is malignant and society evil. This work would join with two others in a savagely pessimistic trilogy entitled Nobodaddys Kinder (1963; Nobodaddy's Children). Other early works were Das steinerne Herz (1956; Heart of Stone) and Die Gelehrtenrepublik (1957; The Egghead Republic). His most monumental work was Zettels Traum (1970; Zettel's Dream), which was Joycean in its language and complexity and occupied 1,330 pages of triple-columns, each column rendering a different narrative of thought processes in a 24-hour period. Structural experimentation continued in such novels as Schule der Atheisten (1972; School for Atheists) and Abend mit Goldrand (1975; Evening Edged in Gold). Schmidt also wrote critical essays and translations of the works of various English authors, including James Joyce and William Faulkner.