»I am not and will not be obedient!«

This collection of Hermann Hesse’s brilliant early letters conveys the both dramatic and fascinating journey full of obstacles of a gifted missionary’s son, destined for a theological career, who had already decided by the age of twelve that he would become »either a poet or nothing«.

After a childhood spent partly in Calw, partly in Basel, he begins to resist his parents’ plans, escapes the theological seminary, tries to take his own life and is committed to an institution for people with mental handicaps and epileptics. He then finishes secondary school until finally, after various detours, his dream of becoming a poet seems within reach. His first publications arouse the interest of important publishers, such as Samuel Fischer who achieved his greatest success after Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks with Hesse’s debut novel Peter Camenzind. After years of protesting and his autodidactic literary studies that he pursued determinedly and which is also documented in these letters, the course for the development of one of the most influential authors of the 20th century is finally set.

It’s not often that a quest for emancipation, ultimately successful, can be portrayed in such a moving and vivid manner as it is done by the example of Hermann Hesse’s youth in the 200 letters contained in this volume.