page_title: Gustav Meyrink
section_title: Early works
hierarchical_section_title: Gustav Meyrink / Early works
caption_attribution_description: English: Book cover
context_page_description: Gustav Meyrink was the pseudonym of Gustav Meyer, an Austrian author,
  novelist, dramatist, translator, and banker, most famous for his novel The Golem.
  He has been described as the "most respected German language writer in the field of supernatural fiction".
context_section_description: During the 1900s Meyrink started publishing satiric short stories in the magazine Simplicissimus, signing them with his mother's surname. During spring 1903 Meyrink's first book, The Hot Soldier and Other Stories was released.  Approximately at the same time he relocated to Vienna.  Almost immediately after his arrival another compilation of his short stories, The Orchid. Strange stories, was released.
  On May 8, 1905 Meyrink married Philomene Bernt, whom he had known since 1896. On July 16, 1906 his daughter Sybille Felizitas was born. On January 17, 1908, two days before Meyrink's fortieth birthday, the second son, Harro Fortunat, was born. Subsequently, the main character of the second Meyrink's novel The Green Face was given the same name. In 1908 the third compilation of short stories, Waxworks, was published.
  Being in need of money, Meyrink started working as a translator and he became a prolific one; during five years he managed to translate into German fifteen volumes of Charles Dickens, as well as work by Rudyard Kipling and Lafcadio Hearn. He continued translating until his death, including various occult works and even the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Meyrink also edited a series of books on the occult.
  In 1911 Meyrink relocated with his family to the little Bavarian town Starnberg, and in 1913 the book Des deutschen Spießers Wunderhorn (The German Philistine's Magic Horn) was published in Munich. It was a compilation of short stories from the previous three books and several new ones; the title is a parody of Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Many of these stories had satirical styles, ridiculing institutions such as the army and the church;  Austrian writer Karl Kraus would later describe Meyrink's work as combining "Buddhism with a dislike for the infantry".
caption: Cover of The Hot Soldier and Other Stories.
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