"All Quiet on the Western Front" is a novel by the German author Erich Maria Remarque. Originally published in the German newspaper Vossische Zeitung in November and December of 1928, the story was collected into a novel and published in January 1929. In its first 18 months of print alone, the book sold 2.5 million … [Read more...] about All Quiet on the Western Front
Erich Maria Remarque
Erich Maria Remarque was a German-American novelist. Born in Osnabruck, Germany in June of 1898, Erich was educated at the University of Munster. Erich began writing poetry and essays at the age of 16. When he was eighteen, Erich Maria was drafted into the army so he could fight in War.
He fought on the Western front between Torhout and Houthulst in Germany until he was wounded and sent to the hospital to recuperate where he spent the rest of the war. After the war, Remarque worked as a school teacher for a while before taking up such jobs as a librarian, a journalist, and an editor.
In 1920, his first novel, "The Dream Room" was published under the name Erich Remark. Remarque published his second book "Station at the Horizon" in 1927 under the same name, but changed the spelling of his family name back to an older version for the publication of his hit novel "All Quiet on the Western Front". Thus, Remark became Remarque. Erich also changed his middle name to Maria in honor of his mother.
In "All Quiet on the Western Front", Remarque used his knowledge and memories of World War I to write a moving novel about a young soldier serving in the war. The book was a success and Remarque followed it with "The Road Back" in 1931.
After the publication of his forth novel, Remarque moved to Porto Ronco, Switzerland. During the 1930's the Nazi's quickly rose to power in Germany. Among the many books they burned publicly were Remarque's works. The Nazi's decried Remarque as a traitor and a fake and in 1938, Remarque's German citizenship was taken away by the party. Remarque left Switzerland for the United States and became a naturalized citizen but moved back to Switzerland in 1948 and began writing again.
Remarque first married in 1925 to the actress Lise Jutta Zambona. They couple divorced in 1930 but later remarried in order to avoid Zambona being made to return to Germany during the war. They divorced again after fleeing to the United States.
In 1958, Remarque married again. This time to the actress Paulette Goddard. The couple stayed together until Remarque's death on September 25th, 1970. At the age of 72, Remarque had an aneurysm which brought on a full heart collapse. He is interred in Ronco, Ticino, Switzerland next to his wife who died 20 years later in 1990.