Viktor Hofmann

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Viktor Balthasar Emil Viktorowitsch Hofmann (born May 14, 1884 in Moscow , † August 13, 1911 in Paris ) was a Russian poet , writer and translator .

Childhood and youth

He was born in Moscow in 1884 as the son of a culture-loving Austrian furniture manufacturer. Hofmann's childhood was harmonious. He attended high school, where he proved his talent as a poet early on. While still at school, he made contacts with representatives of Moscow Modernism, such as Valeri Brjussow , Ossip Mandelstam and Konstantin Balmont . Even as a schoolboy he wrote verses, frequented symbolist circles and published in important almanacs of decadence . After leaving school, Hofmann studied law, but mostly attended lectures on philosophy and linguistics. At the same time he moved out of his parents' house and worked as a publicist and tutor.

Literary work

In 1904 he went to a wider public with the book of beginnings as a poet. He founded the style of "mystical intimism" and wrote numerous reviews and essays as editor of the journal Die Kunst . In 1909 Hofmann moved to St. Petersburg, worked as a secretary and later as an editor. In the same year his second volume of poetry, Die Probe, was published . As a result, Hofmann decided not to write any more poems and devoted himself only to prose. Some texts were published in magazines, such as I drive away , In the silver wreath , Unfaithful and In the mountains . All the while, Hofmann was also working on a larger work, a trilogy of novels dealing with the conflict between emotional and physical love. But he probably later destroyed the manuscript, from the context of which only the story The Sea Has Lied remained.

In St. Petersburg he repeatedly suffered from growing neurasthenia , combined with increasing exhaustion and literary sterility. In 1911 he was so plagued by neurasthenia during a stay in Paris that he shot himself for fear of madness.

Viktor Hofmann translated a. a. Guy de Maupassant and Heinrich Mann .

Works

  • Kniga vstuplenij (Book of Beginnings), 1904
  • The rehearsal, 1909
  • Lie. The stories. (From the Russian and with an afterword by Alexander Nitzberg), Lilienfeld Verlag, Düsseldorf 2009, ISBN 978-3-940357-10-6 (Lilienfeldiana vol. 5)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hofmann, Viktor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gofman, Viktor Viktorovič; Gofman, Viktor Viktorovich; Gofman, Victor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian poet, writer and translator
DATE OF BIRTH May 14, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Moscow
DATE OF DEATH August 13, 1911
Place of death Paris