Stefan Zweig was an Austrian writer born in Vienna, then part of the Habsburg Empire, in 1881. Zweig’s family belonged to the Jewish bourgeoisie, and because of their affluence and Vienna’s status as one of Europe’s cultural capitals, he had access to a top-tier education and was immersed from a young age in the exciting, forward-looking world of Viennese intellectualism. Zweig came of age during the waning days of Habsburg rule in Austria and was part of a young group of intellectuals in the vanguard of music, art, literature, and philosophy. He and his cohort were strong proponents of cosmopolitanism, the belief that shared identity based in community should transcend other forms of allegiance: Zweig identified as a European intellectual more so than as a Jewish, Austrian, or Viennese citizen of Austria-Hungary.

Zweig was a highly regarded author during his lifetime, and his works sold well and were translated into multiple languages. Although today he is best known for his novellas and novels, including The Royal Game (1941), Amok (1922), Letters from an Unknown Woman (1922), Beware of Pity (1939), and the posthumously published The Post Office Girl (1982), he was also a prominent biographer and literary critic. He collaborated multiple times with composer Richard Strauss and maintained close friendships and professional associations with many notable intellectuals of his day, among them

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