Vicki Baum

Vicki Baum, actually Hedwig Baum, was an Austro-American writer. After Vicki Baum worked as a harpist until her second marriage to the conductor Richard Lert in 1916, she devoted herself exclusively to writing after the First World War. Her first novel, The Entrance to the Stage (1920), was a great sales success. From 1926 to 1931 she worked for Ullstein-Verlag as an editor and her novels made her one of the most widely read authors of the Weimar Republic. Her greatest international book success, People in the Hotel, was published in 1929. In 1931, she went to Hollywood as a screenwriter for the film adaptation of the novel, where she then settled in view of the political developments in Germany. While her books were banned in Germany during the Nazi era, Baum took on American citizenship in 1938 and from then on also wrote in English. Baum is considered an author of sophisticated entertainment literature, which is sometimes said to be clichéd and sentimental.

Austrian writer (1888–1960)