Erich Kästner<p>Erich Kästner was born in Dresden in 1899. He began his career as a journalist for the New Leipzig newspaper in 1922, but moved to Berlin in 1927 to begin working as a freelance journalist and theatre critic. In 1929 he published his first bok for children, <em>Emil and the Detectives</em>, which has since been translated into 60 languages, achieving international recognition and selling millions of copies around the world. He subsequently published both <em>Dot and Anton</em> and <em>The Flying Classroom</em>, before turning to adult fiction with his 1931 satire Going to the Dogs. After the Nazis took power in Germany, Kästner's books were burnt on Berlin's Opera Square and over the period of 1937-42 he faced repeated arrest and interrogation by the Gestapo, resulting in his blacklisting and exclusion from the writers' guild. After the end of World War II, Kästner moved to Munich and published <em>The Parent Trap</em>, later adapted into a hit film by Walt Disney. In 1957 he received the Georg Büchner Prize and, later, the Order of Merit and the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award for his contribution to children's literature. Kästner died in Munich in 1974.</p> Read More Read Less