Nobel Prize Recipient. He received professional recognition as a German author after being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929. According to the Nobel Prize committee, he received the coveted award for "principally for his great novel, "Buddenbrooks", which has won steadily increased recognition as one of the classic works of contemporary literature." Besides being a novelist, he was a short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, and essayist. When his father died in 1891, the family moved to Munich. Mann was educated at the Lübeck Gymnasium and he also spent some time at the University of Munich. His career as a writer started in the magazine "Simplicissimus." His first book was published in 1898. During these years, Mann became immersed in the writings of the philosophers Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche as well as in the music of composer Richard Wagner. His 1901 novel "Buddenbrooks" was his early masterpiece. After "Buddenbrooks," Mann concentrated on short novels. "Death in Venice," his famous novel, was inspired by a young, sailor-suited boy whom the author saw in Venice in 1911. After ten years of work, Mann completed his second major work in 1924, "The Magic Mountain," a novel about ideas and of lost Humanism. His next major work was the trilogy "Joseph and his Brother." Upon Adolph Hitler's accession with the Nazi Party, Mann moved to Switzerland, where he edited the literary journal "Mass und Wert." He settled finally in the United States in 1936, where he worked among others at the University of Princeton. In 1941, he moved to Santa Monica, California. Mann lived in the United States for ten years, but was disappointed with the American persecution of Communist sympathizers. In 1947 Mann published his last great work was "Doctor Faustus" and the same year, returned to Europe. During this time his son, Klaus, who was an author, committed suicide. Demonstratively, he avoided Germany and lived mostly in Switzerland, near Zurich, where he died. His novel "Confessions of Felix Krull" was left unfinished. A complete edition of his works in twelve volumes was published first in 1956. Many of his novels were translated to English and other languages. Besides the Nobel Prize, he was awarded the Goethe Prize in 1949. He married and had six children. His older brother was author Heinrich Mann.