Scheffauer, Herman George, 1878-1927

San Francisco writer and critic, translated into German several of Thomas Mann's stories, including Bashan and I, and Beatrix Potter poetry; the author of "Dynamic Architecture : New Forms of Architecture" published in Dial in March 1921; died in Germany under mysterious circumstances (he fell out of a window); married to Ethel Talbot Scheffauer, writer of "School Stories."

From the description of Letter to Mr. O'Donnell, 1913 March 8. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 56994549

Biography

Herman George Scheffauer was born in San Francisco, California in 1878. A poet and playwright of local importance, he was a protégé of Ambrose Bierce and was associated with George Sterling and other Bohemian Grove writers and artists. He married the English poet Ethel Talbot, with whom he had a daughter, Fiona. In 1910, Scheffauer moved to Germany to become a translator and journalist. He committed suicide in 1927.

Scheffauer's published poetry and drama includes Of Both Worlds (1903), Looms of Life (1908), The Sons of Baldur (1908), Drake in California (1912), The Hollow Head of Mars (1915), and The Infant in the News-Sheet (1921). His published translations from the German, many of them posthumous, include Atta Troll (1913), by Heinrich Heine; Bashan and I (1923), Children and Fools (1928), Early Sorrow (1930), and A Man and His Dog (1930), all by Thomas Mann; Gas (1924), by Georg Kaiser; and Peter the Czar (1925), by Klabund.

From the guide to the Herman George Scheffauer Photograph Album, ca. 1885-ca. 1925, (The Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley.)