Richard Katz
| Richard Katz | |
|---|---|
Plate from Ein Bummel um die Welt
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| Born |
November 21, 1888 Prague, Czech Republic |
| Died | November 8, 1968 (aged 79) Muralto, Tessin |
| Occupation | Writer and journalist |
| Genre | Travel literature |
Richard Katz (November 21, 1888 – November 8, 1968) was a German journalist, travel writer, and essayist from Bohemia. While writing both grandiose and humble prose, his style is consistently imbued with a sense of humor, humility and love for all things living.
After graduation Katz studied law at The German University in Prague. During his studies, he wrote for a variety of newspapers and magazines. Upon graduation, he began work with the now defunct Vossische Zeitung newspaper in their Prague office. During this placement, he spent a year in East Asia working as a traveling reporter.
After the First World War, Katz moved to Leipzig and in 1924 he became director of the Leipzig Publishing Company, a position he held for two years. In the years between 1928 and 1930, he was a clerk for the Ullstein publishing house in Berlin. While working in this position, Katz founded the Green Post, a periodical which very quickly reached a circulation of over one million. The financial success allowed Katz to establish himself as an independent writer, giving him the freedom to travel the world while writing of his experiences.
During the period between 1925 and his death, Katz published nearly thirty-five volumes, mostly personally written journalistic travel books. In the late twenties, his five-book series Die Weite Weite Welt (The Wide, Wide World) emerged, including Ein Bummel um die Welt, Funkelnder Ferner Osten, Heitere Tage mit braunen Menschen, Schnapps Kokain und Lamas, Ernte (name translations below). His other areas of interests were animals - specifically dogs - and gardening. Some of his most refreshing works center around the personalities of dogs, and the methods one must employ to be a successful gardener.
In 1933 Katz emigrated to Switzerland. In 1941, he moved to Brazil obtaining citizenship there. In 1956 he returned to Switzerland where he died in 1968 living above Locarno.
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