Though scarcely remembered in the United States, where he settled in 1940 and remained until his death in 1945, Franz Werfel was once among the most celebrated European writers in that country. After spawning the expressionist movement with his poetry, Werfel achieved tremendous critical and popular success with his novels and dramas. Admired by readers of German since 1911, his work grew increasingly popular in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s due in part to the burgeoning German-reading exile community, in part to the successful translations of his works, in part to the plays produced in America, and in part to the Hollywood film productions of Juarez und Maximilian (published, 1924; performed, 1925; translated as Juárez and Maximilian, 1926; filmed, 1938) and Das Lied von Bernadette (1941; translated as Song of Bernadette, 1942; filmed, 1943). Study of Werfel is warranted by the volume and the former immense popularity of his work. Moreover, anyone interested...