{"product_id":"grand-hotel-paperback","title":"Grand Hotel - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eVicki Baum\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003eBasil Creighton\u003c\/b\u003e (Translator), \u003cb\u003eMargot Bettauer Dembo\u003c\/b\u003e (Revised by)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA grand hotel in the center of 1920s Berlin serves as a microcosm of the modern world in this celebrated novel which was the basis for the 1932 Oscar-winning film starring Greta Garbo and John Barrymore\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The luxury Grand Hotel is a revolving door for the stray souls of 1920s Berlin. Among the guests is Doctor Otternschlag, a World War I veteran whose face has been sliced in half by a shell. Day after day he emerges to read the paper in the lobby, discreetly inquiring at the desk if the letter he's been awaiting for years has arrived. Then there is Grusinskaya, a great ballerina now fighting a losing battle not so much against age as against her fear of it, who may or may not be made for Gaigern, a sleek professional thief. Herr Preysing also checks in, the director of a family firm that isn't as flourishing as it appears, who would never imagine that Kringelein, his underling, a timorous petty clerk he's bullied for years, has also come to Berlin, determined to live at last now that he's received a medical death sentence. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e All these characters and more, with all their secrets and aspirations, come together and come alive in the pages of Baum's delicious and disturbing masterpiece--a Weimar-era bestseller that retains all its verve and luster today.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eVicki Baum \u003c\/b\u003e(1888-1960) was born into an affluent Jewish family in Vienna. Her childhood was dominated by a depressed mother and an authoritarian, hypochondriac father, who discouraged her early forays into literature. She studied harp at the Vienna Academy for Music and the Performing Arts and left home at eighteen to marry Max Prels, a journalist under whose name her first short stories were published. In 1916, after the dissolution of her first marriage, she married the conductor Richard Lert and launched her literary career, eventually writing nearly a book a year while working as an editor at the German publishing house Ullstein. Her first major success came in 1920 with the publication of her second novel, \u003ci\u003eOnce in Vienna\u003c\/i\u003e. She spent several months in New York and Hollywood during the making of the film adaptation of \u003ci\u003eGrand Hotel\u003c\/i\u003e--which starred Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford and went on to win the 1933 Oscar for Best Film--and, before Hitler's rise to power, resettled in Los Angeles, where she continued to publish novels while also working as a screenwriter for Paramount and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Her memoir, \u003ci\u003eIt Was All Quite Different\u003c\/i\u003e, was published posthumously. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cb\u003eBasil Creighton\u003c\/b\u003e (1886-1989) translated many notable works of German literature, including Hermann Hesse's \u003ci\u003eSteppenwolf\u003c\/i\u003e, B. Traven's \u003ci\u003eThe Treasure of the Sierra Madre\u003c\/i\u003e, and Alma Mahler's \u003ci\u003eGustav Mahler: Memories and Letters.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMargot Bettauer Dembo\u003c\/b\u003e (1928-2019) was the translator of works by Judith Hermann, Robert Gernhardt, Joachim Fest, ﾖd von Horv疸h, and Feridun Zaimoglu, among others. She was awarded the Goethe-Institut\/Berlin Translator's Prize in 1994 and the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize in 2003. Dembo also worked as a translator for two feature documentary films: \u003ci\u003eThe Restless Conscience\u003c\/i\u003e, which was nominated for an Academy Award, and \u003ci\u003eThe Burning Wall\u003c\/i\u003e. For NYRB Classics she translated \u003ci\u003eTransit\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Seventh Cross\u003c\/i\u003e by Anna Seghers and \u003ci\u003eGrand Hotel \u003c\/i\u003eby Vicki Baum. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cb\u003eNoah Isenberg\u003c\/b\u003e is a professor of culture and media at the New School, where he also serves as the director of screen studies. He is the author of several books on film, a regular contributor to \u003ci\u003eBookforum\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Nation\u003c\/i\u003e, and the \u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e, and the book review editor of \u003ci\u003eFilm Quarterly\u003c\/i\u003e. Isenberg is a fellow at the New York Institute for the Humanities and the recipient of a 2015 NEH Public Scholar award.\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 304\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.6 x 7.9 x 5 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e June 07, 2016\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51765417115936,"sku":"9781590179673","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/3feabf287e16ce9a907e085777dc6162.webp?v=1780268962","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/grand-hotel-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}