Herman Hesse was a German-Swiss poet, painter and novelist. In 1946 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He is most noted for Steppenwolf, Siddhartha and The Glass Bead Game. Siddhartha was written in 1922 and showed his love of the Indian culture and Buddhist philosophy. Siddhartha returned to popularity in the 1960's due in part to the counterculture mood in the hippie movement and the novel's themes of a quest for enlightenment.
