Felix Salten was an Austrian author and critic in Vienna. His most famous work is Bambi, a Life in the Woods (1923).
Background
Salten was born Siegmund Salzmann in Pest, Hungary, the grandson of an orthodox rabbi. When he was four weeks old, his family relocated to Vienna, Austria. Many Jews were immigrating into the city during the late 19th century because Vienna had granted full citizenship to Jews in 1867.
Education
When his father became bankrupt, the sixteen-year-old Salten quit school and began working for an insurance agency. He also began submitting poems and book reviews to journals. He became part of the "Young Vienna" movement (Jung Wien) and soon received work as a full-time art and theater critic for Vienna's press (Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung, Zeit). In 1900 he published his first collection of short stories. In 1901 he initiated Vienna's first, short-lived literary cabaret Jung-Wiener Theater Zum lieben Augustin.
Career
From 1891 in Vienna he earned a meager living as feuilletonist and literary critic for various newspapers and periodicals. He associated with Jung- wicn, a literary circle, whose most talented members were Arthur Schnitzler — who exerted a great influence on Salten, Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Richard Beer-Hofmann. However, he remained a little-known literary figure until 1923. Flis novels, beginning with Die Hinterblien- bette (1899), his plays, starting with the comedy "Der Gemeine" (1901), and his four books of essays before World War I did not attract many readers. He was best known as the feuilletonist and theater critic of Vienna’s most influential daily. NeueFreie Presse, a position formerly held by his friend Theodor Herzl.
The publication of "Bambi" (1923), the best of his animal stories, catapulted him to world fame, further enhanced by Walt Disney's adaptation of the story to the screen in 1942. "Bambi", the tale of a deer’s life in the forest, has remained a children’s classic ever since and has been widely translated.
Salten’s interest in Judaism and Zionism led to an extensive tour of Palestine. He recorded his observations of the pioneering Jewish settlements in Neue Menschen auf alter Fide (“New People on Old Land:" 1925). His visit also led him to write his only biblical novel, "Simson" ("Samson" 1928). In his innovative version of the Samson theme. Salten defends Delilah as the faithful beloved of Samson who unwittingly brings about his blinding and death. He ascribes Samson’s betrayal to the Philistines as the vengeance of her jealous sister. For Salten, Samson’s fate symbolized Jewish fate. Increasing anti-Semitism, culminating in the rise of Nazism, led him to pessimistic forecasts.
When the Nazis occupied Vienna, Salten was forced into exile. He found a temporary refuge in Hollywood, settling in Zurich, Switzerland, after the war.
Views
Quotations:
He wrote, “Forever the rope will be about our neck, forever the brutal hand of others will drive us as though we were cattle or scum. It is an accursed blessing that we bear but still a blessing. We bear the light of the world and must hence suffer as long as darkness reigns. We bear the wisdom of the world and must hence endure ill-usage as long as stupidity prevails. We bring liberation to the world and are hence persecuted as long as there is slavery.”