Remarque, << rih MAHRK, >> Erich Maria (1898-1970), a German-American author, wrote realistic, suspenseful novels about the horrors and effects of war. His All Quiet on the Western Front (1929) is among the most famous of all war stories. This story relates the shattering experiences of a group of German soldiers in World War I (1914-1918).
Remarque followed this success with The Road Back (1931) and Three Comrades (1937), stories of the confusion in postwar German society and the hardships faced by combat veterans. He continued the war theme in Arch of Triumph (1946), a novel about a German doctor who fled to Paris to escape the Nazis at the beginning of World War II (1939-1945). Spark of Life (1952) is a story of human suffering and courage in a Nazi concentration camp. The Night in Lisbon (1964) also describes human suffering during World War II.
Remarque was born on June 22, 1898, in Osnabrück, Germany. He fought in World War I and was wounded several times. In 1933, the Nazis publicly burned his books because of their antigovernment and antimilitarist themes. The Nazis took away his citizenship in 1938. Remarque lived in Switzerland from 1931 to 1939. He moved to the United States in 1939, but often returned to Switzerland. He became a United States citizen in 1947. Remarque died on Sept. 25, 1970.
