"Throughout his life, Hesse sought to maintain this remarkably fluid boundary between life and art, daily routine and creativity, sanity and psychological crisis, through his studiously pursued role as an artist." (Prologue, pg. 4)

"And since Hermann Hesse's family was composed on Pietist theologians, the conflicts that occurred in their daily lives were seen as mirroring those embedded in the precepts by which they sought to live." (Chapter 1, pg. 17)

"On all levels, then, Hermann Hesse's world as a child was divided. Even the contrast between the reality of the Swiss-Swabian landscape and the Orient of the family's memory and imagination appeared split into the more personal categories of paternal and maternal landscapes." (Chapter 1, pg. 38)

"Still, the tone in his early letters resounded with a sense of success, with the felling that he had arrived at last, that he was now functioning on his own, and that he had attained...