Böll, << buhl or buhrl, >> Heinrich (1917-1985), a German author, won the 1972 Nobel Prize in literature. His writings express a commitment to peace and plead for compassion for the victims of war, oppression, and social injustice. Böll’s works also attack abuses of political and economic power.
Böll dealt with the horrors of war, especially World War II (1939-1945), in his early short-story collection Traveller, If You Come to Spa … (1950) and his novel Adam, Where Art Thou? (1951). After Germany’s economic recovery following World War II, Böll’s fiction became increasingly critical of capitalist society and the negative effects of prosperity. His novels Billiards at Half-Past Nine (1959) and The Clown (1963) expose the materialism and opportunism he saw in the older generation of German society. Group Portrait with Lady (1971), perhaps his best novel, tells the story of a woman who becomes an outsider to middle-class society.
Böll was born on Dec. 21, 1917, in Cologne. He also wrote radio plays and political and literary essays. He died on July 16, 1985.
