Leupold von sacher-masoch biography

1. Biography of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch
2. Early Life and Education
3. Literary Career and Personal Life
4. Legacy and Death

Biography of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch

Leopold von Sacher-Masoch was an Austrian writer who gained particular popularity in France, where his works were published by leading publishers. His Galician prose and erotic stories garnered equal interest. He was born on January 27, 1836, in the capital of Galicia, Lemberg (Lviv). He was the eldest of five children in a family of the director of the Galician police. His father's ancestors were Spaniards who had settled in Austria during the time of Charles, and his mother came from an ancient Slavic family.

Early Life and Education

Leopold spent the first twelve years of his life in Lemberg and a small village called Viniki, near the capital. His urban life was characterized by an atmosphere of enlightenment and the preservation of liberal traditions during the reign of Franz Joseph. His knowledge of the Russian language later allowed him to read original works by Russian authors such as Karamzin, Pushkin, and Turgenev. During his visits to relatives, Leopold had his first experiences with romantic relationships between adults, which he later described in his "Memories of Childhood". He also experienced the deaths of three sisters and brothers at an early age, as well as the social upheaval caused by the Polish uprising in the Krakow Republic in 1846, which was suppressed and annexed to Galicia.

Ten years later, he published material about this uprising as his first literary experience. In 1854, he moved to Graz, the capital of Styria. He settled there for almost two decades. It was in Graz that he had his famous encounter with the Bavarian King Ludwig II, known for his romantic inclination towards the arts, his whimsical fate, and his mysterious disappearance. Leopold completed his education with a doctoral dissertation in philosophy and history. He became a lecturer in history at the local university, and a brilliant academic career seemed to lie ahead of him.

Literary Career and Personal Life

In 1858, he anonymously published the novel "A Galician Story. The Year 1846". From then on, he published one or more books annually, including "The Sunset of Hungary and Maria of Austria", "The Emissary", and "The Man Without Prejudices". He also wrote feuilletons and light gossip pieces for various periodicals, a genre that is now lost. He composed plays and historical reviews, such as "The Rebellion in Ghent during the Reign of Charles V", and attempted to establish several short-lived journals ("Austrian Bower", 1866-67; "Monthly Theater and Music", 1868). He wrote metric imitations of psalms (1863) and explored the poetry of Frederick the Great (1864). However, this literary, critical, and publishing activity did not attract serious criticism or bring him financial well-being. During these years, he combined his university lectureship with his literary work.

The success of "Don Juan" strengthened his decision to abandon his academic career and fully dedicate himself to literature. He continued to work prolifically and gradually conceived the idea of a whole cycle of novellas under the overall conceptual title "The Testament of Cain". In Graz, Leopold's first "masochistic" passion for Anna von Kotzwitz arose, which lasted for several years and plunged him into a serious life crisis. The experiences and suffering with Anna von Kotzwitz formed the basis of the novel "The Divorcee" (1870) and other stories about love, just as his previous affair with Fanny von Pistor inspired him to create "Venus in Furs". He held a professorship at the University of Lemberg for a while, and in 1880, he moved to Budapest for thirteen months, where he worked as an editor. In 1881, he settled with his family in Leipzig. In addition to his writing, he tried his hand as a publisher of an artistic almanac called "At the Heights", which continued until 1885 but brought him neither public success nor financial gain.

Legacy and Death

Meanwhile, his fame resonated far beyond the German-speaking world, reaching as far as America and finding a wide audience in various countries. His works were translated into many European languages and published in mass editions. He was particularly popular in France, where his writings were published by leading publishers, and his Galician prose elicited as much interest as his erotic stories. Prominent French literary figures, such as Zola, Taine, Flaubert, Daudet, and both Dumas, highly valued the works of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. During his trip to Paris in 1886, he was received by the President of the French Republic and awarded the Cross of the Legion of Honor.

On March 9, 1895, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch died in the village of Lindheim. However, the uniqueness of his fate did not end even after his death, as the urn containing his ashes was destroyed in a fire in 1929.