Made in Germany

Made in Germany

GIFTS OF LIFE -Emil Ludwig -Little, Brown ($4). Most popular of modern German biographers, with a reputation for prolificacy which he admits is not deserved (eleven translations of his books appeared in -the U. S. in four years, but it took eleven years to write them). Emil Ludwig has now written a biography on everyone's favorite subject : himself. Emil Ludwig was born Cohn 50 years ago, son of an eye-doctor in Breslau. Germany. When he was two years old his father furthered the family's fortunes by changing its name. Emil had a good edu cation and then went to work in his uncle's prosperous coal business. He did well, but a canker ate him: like many romantic boys he dreamed of being a great poet. When he fell in love (at sight) with a girl he called Diana, she encouraged his literary ambitions. He persuaded her to elope with him. they ran away to a little villa in Switzerland, near Locarno, were married before his enraged family could put a stop to it.

There they lived idyllically for awhile. With lush enthusiasm Emil worked away at his five-act dramas. Life went on: his family forgave him, he boiled the pot with journalism, his wife fell in love with another man, recovered from it. When the War came, Emil's nearsightedness saved his skin. Then he turned to biography. His Goethe made further potboiling unnecessary.

Living in a spacious house close by the much smaller one in which they spent their runaway honeymoon, the Ludwigs now share it with their two children, many borzois and greyhounds. Frau Ludwig helps her husband in research, tells him many a home-truth about the work in progress. Ludwig's mind is especially active while he is shaving. If he has cut himself several times his wife asks: "Did you have an idea, then?"

Other books: Bismarck, Lincoln, Schliemann (TIME, June 1), Son of Man.

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