Elias Canetti
Biographical
| 1905 | Born on 25 July in Ruse, Bulgaria. Mother tongue Ladino (archaic dialect of Spanish). |
| 1911 | Moved to Manchester, England. First school. Earliest lessons in English. |
| 1912 | Sudden death of his father. War breaks out in the Balkans. |
| 1913 | His mother moves to Vienna with her three small sons. German lessons from his mother. Elementary school in Vienna. |
| 1914 | First World War begins. Enthusiastic crowds take to the streets of Vienna. |
| 1916 | Zurich. Canton school until 1921. Excellent teachers. |
| 1921-22 | Frankfurt. Upper secondary school. Demonstrations after the death of German industrialist and politician Walter Rathenau. Inflation. |
| 1924 | Graduated (“Abitur”) in Frankfurt. Return to Vienna. Study of chemistry. Lectures by the Austrian writer-critic Karl Kraus a decisive influence. |
| 1925 | First outline for a book about crowd psychology. |
| 1927 | 15 July: the Viennese Law, Court burns. |
| 1928 | Visit to Berlin. Meets George Grosz, Brecht and Isaak Babel. |
| 1929 | Receives his doctorate in Vienna. |
| 1930-31 | Works on his novel Die Blendung. |
| 1932 | Hochzeit [“The Marriage”] – a play. |
| 1934 | Komodie der Eitelkeit [“The Comedy of Vanity”] – marries Veza Taubner-Calderon. |
| 1935 | Publishes Die Blendung |
| 1938 | Hitler occupies Austria. November: emigration via Paris to London. |
| 1939 | During the following two decades concentration on his forthcoming work, Masse und Macht. |
| 1946 | Publication of Auto-da-Fé, the English version of Die Blendung in a translation by C. V. Wedgwood. [Appeared in the US in 1947 as The Tower of Babel.] |
| 1952 | Receives British citizenship. |
| 1956 | Premiere of his play Die Befristeten [“Their Days are Numbered”] in Oxford. |
| 1960 | Masse und Macht [Crowds and Power, tr. 1962] published in Hamburg. |
| 1963 | Death of Veza Canetti. |
| 1964 | The three plays Hochzeit, Komodie der Eitelkeit and Die Befristeten appear. |
| 1965 | Aufzeichnungen 1942-48 [“Sketches”]. |
| 1968 | Die Stimmen von Marrakesch [The Voices of Marrakesh tr. 1978] published by Hanser in Munich. |
| 1969 | Der andere Prozess. Kafkas Briefe an Felice [Kafka’s Other Trial, tr. 1974]. |
| 1971 | Marries Hera Buschor. |
| 1972 | Receives the Buchner Prize in Darmstadt. |
| 1973 | Die Provinz des Menschen. Aufzeichnungen 1942-1972 [The Human Province, tr. 1978]. |
| 1974 | Der Ohrenzeuge. Funfzig Charaktere [Ear Witness: Fifty Characters, tr. 1979]. |
| 1975 | Das Gewissen der Wort. Essays [“The Conscience of Words”]. Receives honorary doctorates from Manchester and Munich. |
| 1977 | Die gerettete Zunge. Geschichte einer Jugend. [The Tongue Set Free, tr. 1979]. |
| 1980 | Die Fackel im Ohr. Lebensgeschichte 1921-1931 [The Torch in My Ear, tr. 1982]. Receives the order Pour le mérite in Bonn. |
| 1981 | Receives the 1981 Nobel Prize in Literature. |
| 1985 | Das Augenspiel. Lebensgeschichte 1931-1937 [The Play of the Eyes tr. 1990]. |
| 1987 | Das Geheimhen der Uhr. Aufzeichnungen 1973-1985 [The Secret Heart of the Clock, tr 1989]. |
| 1992 | Die Fliegenpein, Aufzeichnungen/Pain of Flies: Notes. |
Elias Canetti
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.
Elias Canetti died on 14 August 1994.
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