Why We Keep Reading "All Quiet on the Western Front"

"When Germany declared war on Russia in August 1914, Erich Maria Remarque was 16 years old. Growing up in Osnabrueck, near the Dutch border, he'd harbored literary aspirations. But he was training to become a teacher when he was drafted to serve, in November 1916. Eight months later, a British grenade exploded near Remarque's position in the Third Battle of Ypres, wounding him seriously."

"In the years that followed, Remarque moved through a succession of jobs: teacher, salesman, engraver, church organist, magazine editor in Hanover and Berlin. In 1920, he published a novel he'd begun as a teen, The Dream Room. Written in an aestheticist key (an artist character is called, unironically, a "priest of beauty"), the book was brought out by a tiny outfit, Die Schoenheit Verlag (Beauty Press), whose motto was: "Light and Love in Human Existence. Youth Through Nudism.""

Erich Maria Remarque was drafted into the German army in November 1916 after growing up in Osnabrueck and harboring literary aspirations. A British grenade at the Third Battle of Ypres wounded him seriously eight months later, and he returned to active duty only on November 7, 1918. After the war he worked in several jobs, including teacher, engraver and magazine editor in Hanover and Berlin. In 1920 he published The Dream Room with Die Schoenheit Verlag but later disavowed it and tried to buy back copies. He began The Station on the Horizon in the mid-1920s and wrote All Quiet on the Western Front in 1928; Fischer Verlag passed on it and Ullstein Verlag serialized it.

Read at The Nation