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102-508: Michael Andreas Helmuth Ende (12 November 1929 – 28 August 1995) was a German writer of fantasy and children's fiction . He is known for his epic fantasy The Neverending Story (with its 1980s film adaptation and a 1995 animated television adaptation); other well-known works include Momo and Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver . His works have been translated into more than 40 languages and sold more than 35 million copies. Ende

204-475: A murder mystery play which is the longest-running West End show , it has by far the longest run of any play in the world, with its 29,500th performance having taken place as of February 2024. Contemporary playwrights in the United States are affected by recent declines in theatre attendance. No longer the only outlet for serious drama or entertaining comedies, theatrical productions must use ticket sales as

306-634: A Japanese newspaper, Michael Ende attended the opening and spent two months touring Japan. It was his third trip accompanied by the Japanese-born Mariko Sato, whom he married in September 1989. The following year an archive devoted to Michael Ende was established at Kurohime Dowakan, a museum in the Japanese city of Shinano-machi. Ende donated letters and other personal items to the collection. On 23 October 1992 Michael Ende made his final trip to Japan. In

408-483: A chapter of his book English Prose Style (1928) to discussing "Fantasy" as an aspect of literature, arguing it was unjustly considered suitable only for children: "The Western World does not seem to have conceived the necessity of Fairy Tales for Grown-Ups". In 1938, with the publication of The Sword in the Stone , T. H. White introduced one of the most notable works of comic fantasy . The first major contribution to

510-460: A children's writer exclusively, considering that his purpose was to speak of cultural problems and spiritual wisdom to people of all ages. Especially in Germany, Ende was accused by some critics of escapism . He wrote in 1985: One may enter the literary parlor via just about any door, be it the prison door, the madhouse door, or the brothel door. There is but one door one may not enter it through, which

612-480: A fellow English professor with a similar array of interests, also helped to publicize the fantasy genre. Tove Jansson , author of The Moomins , was also a strong contributor to the popularity of fantasy literature in the field of children and adults. The tradition established by these predecessors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries has continued to thrive and be adapted by new authors. The influence of J.R.R. Tolkien's fiction has—particularly over

714-507: A form of playwright. Outside of the Western world there is Indian classical drama , with one of the oldest known playwrights being Śudraka , whose attributed plays can be dated to the second century BC. The Nāṭya Shāstra , a text on the performing arts from between 500BC-500AD, categorizes playwrights as being among the members of a theatre company, although playwrights were generally the highest in social status, with some being kings. In

816-406: A great impression on him. In 1944, Edgar Ende's studio at no. 90 Kaulbachstraße, Munich went up in flames and over two hundred and fifty paintings and sketches were destroyed, as well as all his prints and etchings. Ernst Buchner  [ de ] , Director of Public Art for Bavaria, was still in possession of a number of Ende's paintings, which survived the raids. After the bombing, Luise Ende

918-462: A house they called Casa Liocorno ("The Unicorn"). It was there that Ende wrote most of the novel Momo . Following the death of his wife, Ende sold the home in Genzano and returned to Munich. He married a second time in 1989, to Japanese woman Mariko Sato, and they remained married until his death. He first met Mariko Sato in 1976. Sato had emigrated from Japan to West Germany in 1974 and was working at

1020-553: A pejorative sense by Ben Jonson to suggest a mere tradesman fashioning works for the theatre. Jonson uses the word in his Epigram 49, which is thought to refer to John Marston or Thomas Dekker : Jonson described himself as a poet, not a playwright, since plays during that time were written in meter and so were regarded as the province of poets. This view was held as late as the early 19th century. The term "playwright" later again lost this negative connotation. The earliest playwrights in Western literature with surviving works are

1122-536: A piece in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Friedrich Schiller 's death. Ende produced a sketch in which a statue of Schiller is being interviewed about current events, and replies with quotes from Schiller's writings. "There was rapturous applause, and commissions arrived from other cabarets too." Michael Ende began to compose sketches, chansons and monologues. For fourteen years, Ende and Hoffmann, who were both Italophiles , lived just outside Rome in Genzano , in

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1224-463: A play inspired by Hearn's material. Die Päonienlaterne (The Peony Lantern) was written for radio, but never broadcast. Ende was primarily interested in Japan because of its radical otherness. The Japanese language and script were so different from Ende's native German that it seemed they were grounded in a different kind of consciousness—an alternative way of seeing the world. He was particularly intrigued by

1326-635: A playwright, winning awards for his play The Phoenix at both the New York International Fringe Festival in 1999 and the Route 66 American Playwriting Competition in 2000. Today, theatre companies have new play development programs meant to develop new American voices in playwriting. Many regional theatres have hired dramaturges and literary managers in an effort to showcase various festivals for new work, or bring in playwrights for residencies. Funding through national organizations, such as

1428-511: A relationship that led to their marriage in 1964 in Rome, Italy, and ended with Ingeborg Hoffmann's sudden and unexpected death in 1985 from a pulmonary embolism ; she was 63 years old. Hoffmann influenced Ende profoundly. In addition to assisting with getting his first major manuscript published, Hoffmann worked with him on his others, reading them and discussing them with him. Hoffman also influenced Ende's life in other ways. She encouraged Ende to join

1530-551: A secret German resistance group founded to sabotage the SS 's declared intention to defend Munich until the "bitter end". Ende served the group as a courier for the remainder of the war. In 1946, Michael Ende's grammar school re-opened, and he attended classes for a year, following which the financial support of family friends allowed him to complete his high-school education at a Waldorf School in Stuttgart . This seemingly charitable gesture

1632-525: A source of income, which has caused many of them to reduce the number of new works being produced. For example, Playwrights Horizons produced only six plays in the 2002–03 seasons, compared with thirty-one in 1973–74. Playwrights commonly encounter difficulties in getting their shows produced and often cannot earn a living through their plays alone, leading them to take up other jobs to supplement their incomes. Many playwrights are also film makers . For instance, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock began his career as

1734-558: A stricter interpretation of Aristotle, as this long-lost work came to light in the late 15th century. The neoclassical ideal, which was to reach its apogee in France during the 17th century, dwelled upon the unities , of action, place, and time. This meant that the playwright had to construct the play so that its "virtual" time would not exceed 24 hours, that it would be restricted to a single setting, and that there would be no subplots. Other terms, such as verisimilitude and decorum, circumscribed

1836-615: Is Hans Sachs (1494–1576) who wrote 198 dramatic works. In England, The Second Shepherds' Play of the Wakefield Cycle is the best known early farce. However, farce did not appear independently in England until the 16th century with the work of John Heywood (1497–1580). Playwright William Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted. Most playwrights of

1938-438: Is an archaic English term for a craftsperson or builder (as in a wheelwright or cartwright ). The words combine to indicate a person who has "wrought" words, themes, and other elements into a dramatic form—a play. (The homophone with "write" is coincidental.) The first recorded use of the term "playwright" is from 1605, 73 years before the first written record of the term "dramatist". It appears to have been first used in

2040-506: Is based on older oral traditions, including "animal fables that are as old as we are able to imagine". It was influential in Europe and the Middle East . It used various animal fables and magical tales to illustrate the central Indian principles of political science . Talking animals endowed with human qualities have now become a staple of modern fantasy. The Baital Pachisi ( Vikram and

2142-534: Is still useful to playwrights today is the " French scene ", which is a scene in a play where the beginning and end are marked by a change in the makeup of the group of characters onstage rather than by the lights going up or down or the set being changed. Notable playwrights: Greek theater was alive and flourishing on the island of Crete. During the Cretan Renaissance two notable Greek playwrights Georgios Chortatzis and Vitsentzos Kornaros were present in

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2244-468: Is the nursery door. The critics will never forgive you such. The great Rudyard Kipling is one to have suffered this. I keep wondering to myself what this peculiar contempt towards anything related to childhood is all about. Ende's writing could be described as a surreal mixture of reality and fantasy . The reader is often invited to take a more interactive role in the story, and the worlds in his books often mirror our reality, using fantasy to bring light to

2346-426: Is too bland or simplistic creates the impression that the fantasy setting is simply a modern world in disguise, and presents examples of clear, effective fantasy writing in brief excerpts from Tolkien and Evangeline Walton . Michael Moorcock observed that many writers use archaic language for its sonority and to lend color to a lifeless story. Brian Peters writes that in various forms of fairytale fantasy , even

2448-619: The Kalevala , they compiled existing folklore into an epic to match other nation's, and sometimes, as in The Poems of Ossian , they fabricated folklore that should have been there. These works, whether fairy tale, ballads, or folk epics, were a major source for later fantasy works. The Romantic interest in medievalism also resulted in a revival of interest in the literary fairy tale. The tradition begun with Giovanni Francesco Straparola and Giambattista Basile and developed by Charles Perrault and

2550-453: The Age of Enlightenment . Many of Perrault's tales became fairy tale staples and were influential to later fantasy. When d'Aulnoy termed her works contes de fée (fairy tales), she invented the term that is now generally used for the genre, thus distinguishing such tales from those involving no marvels. This approach influenced later writers who took up the folk fairy tales in the same manner during

2652-462: The Ancient Greeks . These early plays were for annual Athenian competitions among play writers held around the 5th century BC. Such notables as Aeschylus , Sophocles , Euripides , and Aristophanes established forms still relied on by their modern counterparts. We have complete texts extant by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides . The origins of Athenian tragedy remain obscure, though by

2754-523: The Elizabethan era in England , fantasy literature became extraordinarily popular and fueled populist and anti-authoritarian sentiment during the 1590s . Topics that were written about included " fairylands in which the sexes traded places [and] men and immortals mingl[ing]". Romanticism , a movement of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, was a dramatic reaction to rationalism, challenging

2856-470: The Humanist Union , an organization committed to furthering humanist values. Together they campaigned for human rights, protested against West German rearmament , and worked towards peace . Thanks to Ingeborg Hoffmann's numerous contacts, Michael Ende was introduced to a variety of cabaret groups. In 1955, Therese Angeloff, head of Die kleinen Fische (the 'Little Fish' cabaret), commissioned Ende to write

2958-608: The Middle East has been influential in the West since it was translated from the Arabic into French in 1704 by Antoine Galland . Many imitations were written, especially in France. The Fornaldarsagas , Norse and Icelandic sagas , both of which are based on ancient oral tradition influenced the German Romantics, as well as William Morris , and J. R. R. Tolkien . The Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf has also had deep influence on

3060-600: The National Endowment for the Arts and the Theatre Communications Group , encouraged the partnerships of professional theatre companies and emerging playwrights. Playwrights will often have a cold reading of a script in an informal sitdown setting, which allows them to evaluate their own plays and the actors performing them. Cold reading means that the actors haven't rehearsed the work, or may be seeing it for

3162-509: The Nazi Party , so Edgar Ende was forced to draw and paint in secret. World War II heavily influenced Ende's childhood. He was twelve years old when he witnessed the first Allied bombing raid on Munich: Our street was consumed by flames. The fire didn't crackle; it roared. The flames were roaring. I remember singing and careering through the blaze like a drunkard. I was in the grip of a kind of euphoria. I still don't truly understand it, but I

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3264-529: The Romantic era . Several fantasies aimed at an adult readership were also published in 18th century France, including Voltaire 's " contes philosophique " The Princess of Babylon (1768) and The White Bull (1774). This era, however, was notably hostile to fantasy. Writers of the new types of fiction such as Defoe , Richardson , and Fielding were realistic in style, and many early realistic works were critical of fantastical elements in fiction. However, in

3366-552: The "First Terrible Fate that Awaiteth Unwary Beginners in Fantasy", alluding to young writers attempting to write in Lord Dunsany's style. According to S. T. Joshi , "Dunsany's work had the effect of segregating fantasy—a mode whereby the author creates his own realm of pure imagination—from supernatural horror. From the foundations he established came the later work of E. R. Eddison , Mervyn Peake , and J. R. R. Tolkien. In Britain in

3468-577: The 1960s, a growing segment of the fantasy genre has taken the form of films , television programs , graphic novels , video games , music and art. Many fantasy novels originally written for children and adolescents also attract an adult audience. Examples include Alice's Adventures in Wonderland , the Harry Potter series, The Chronicles of Narnia , and The Hobbit . Stories involving magic and terrible monsters have existed in spoken forms before

3570-449: The 4th century BCE, Aristotle wrote his Poetics , in which he analyzed the principle of action or praxis as the basis for tragedy. He then considered elements of drama: plot ( μύθος mythos ), character ( ἔθος ethos ), thought ( dianoia ), diction ( lexis ), music ( melodia ), and spectacle ( opsis ). Since the myths on which Greek tragedy were based were widely known, plot had to do with

3672-536: The 5th century it was institutionalised in competitions ( agon ) held as part of festivities celebrating Dionysos (the god of wine and fertility ). As contestants in the City Dionysia's competition (the most prestigious of the festivals to stage drama), playwrights were required to present a tetralogy of plays (though the individual works were not necessarily connected by story or theme), which usually consisted of three tragedies and one satyr play. For

3774-605: The French précieuses was taken up by the German Romantic movement. The German author Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué created medieval-set stories such as Undine (1811) and Sintram and his Companions (1815), which would later inspire British writers such as George MacDonald and William Morris . E.T.A. Hoffmann 's tales, such as The Golden Pot (1814) and The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (1816) were notable additions to

3876-550: The Middle Ages, the earliest of which is The Play of the Greenwood by Adam de la Halle in 1276. It contains satirical scenes and folk material such as faeries and other supernatural occurrences. Farces also rose dramatically in popularity after the 13th century. The majority of these plays come from France and Germany and are similar in tone and form, emphasizing sex and bodily excretions. The best known playwright of farces

3978-605: The Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and the end of the 17th century, classical ideas were in vogue. As a result, critics of the time mostly rated Shakespeare below John Fletcher and Ben Jonson. This period saw the first professional woman playwright, Aphra Behn . As a reaction to the decadence of Charles II era productions, sentimental comedy grew in popularity. Playwrights like Colley Cibber and Richard Steele believed that humans were inherently good but capable of being led astray. The Italian Renaissance brought about

4080-521: The Southwest Wind an irascible but kindly character similar to J.R.R. Tolkien 's later Gandalf . The history of modern fantasy literature began with George MacDonald, author of such novels as The Princess and the Goblin (1868) and Phantastes (1868), the latter of which is widely considered to be the first fantasy novel written for adults. MacDonald also wrote one of the first critical essays about

4182-677: The Vampire ), a collection of various fantasy tales set within a frame story is, according to Richard Francis Burton and Isabel Burton , "the germ which culminated in the Arabian Nights , and which also inspired the Golden Ass of Apuleius , (2nd century A.D). Boccaccio 's Decamerone (c.1353) the Pentamerone (1634, 1636) and all that class of facetious fictitious literature." The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights) from

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4284-689: The Wild Thirteen , was published in 1962. Both books were serialized on radio and TV, and the Augsburger Puppenkiste famously adapted the novels in a version filmed by Hesse's broadcasting corporation. The print-runs sold out so rapidly that K. Thienemanns could barely keep up. Translations into numerous foreign languages soon followed. Ende claimed, "It is for this child in me, and in all of us, that I tell my stories", and that "[my books are] for any child between 80 and 8 years" (qtd. Senick 95, 97). He often expressed frustration over being perceived as

4386-526: The advent of printed literature. Classical mythology is replete with fantastical stories and characters, the best known (and perhaps the most relevant to modern fantasy) being the works of Homer (Greek) and Virgil (Roman). The philosophy of Plato has had great influence on the fantasy genre. In the Christian Platonic tradition, the reality of other worlds, and an overarching structure of great metaphysical and moral importance, has lent substance to

4488-529: The aftermath of World War I, a notably large number of fantasy books aimed at an adult readership were published, including Living Alone (1919) by Stella Benson , A Voyage to Arcturus (1920) by David Lindsay , Lady into Fox (1922) by David Garnett , Lud-in-the-Mist (1926) by Hope Mirrlees , and Lolly Willowes (1926) by Sylvia Townsend Warner . E. R. Eddison was another influential writer who wrote during this era. He drew inspiration from Northern sagas, as Morris did, but his prose style

4590-420: The ancient Greeks, playwriting involved poïesis , "the act of making". This is the source of the English word poet . Despite Chinese Theatre having performers dated back to the 6th century BC with You Meng , their perspective of theatre was such that plays had no other role than "performer" or "actor", but given that the performers were also the ones who invented their performances, they could be considered

4692-560: The annual congress of the JBBY (Japanese Committee for International Children's Literature) in Tokyo. He gave a lecture on "Eternal Child-likeness"—the first detailed explanation of his artistic vision. 1989 marked the opening of the exhibition Michael and Edgar Ende in Tokyo. The exhibition was subsequently shown in Otsu , Miyazaki , Nagasaki , Osaka , Nagoya and Fukuyama . At the invitation of Shimbun ,

4794-404: The arrangement and selection of existing material. Character was determined by choice and by action. Tragedy is mimesis —"the imitation of an action that is serious". He developed his notion of hamartia , or tragic flaw, an error in judgment by the main character or protagonist , which provides the basis for the "conflict-driven" play. There were also a number of secular performances staged in

4896-432: The canon of German fantasy. Ludwig Tieck 's collection Phantasus (1812–1817) contained several short fairy tales, including "The Elves". In France, the main writers of Romantic-era fantasy were Charles Nodier with Smarra (1821) and Trilby (1822) and Théophile Gautier who penned such stories as "Omphale" (1834) and " One of Cleopatra's Nights " (1838) as well as the novel Spirite (1866). Fantasy literature

4998-416: The clatter of skittles from nearby bowling alleys. The acting was a disappointment, he usually had to play old men and malicious schemers, and had barely enough time to memorize his lines. Despite the frustrations and disappointments of his early acting career, Ende came to value his time in the provinces as a valuable learning experience that endowed him with a practical, down-to-earth approach to his work: "It

5100-411: The continent. Other writers, including Edgar Rice Burroughs and Abraham Merritt , further developed the style. Several classic children's fantasies such as Lewis Carroll 's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), L. Frank Baum 's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), as well as the work of E. Nesbit and Frank R. Stockton were also published around this time. C. S. Lewis noted that in

5202-453: The course of their three-week visit Michael Ende and Mariko Sato-Ende visited the Dowakan museum, joined Ende's Japanese publishers, Iwanami, in celebrating the millionth sale of Momo, and travelled to Kanazawa and Hamamatsu and a number of other cities that were new to Ende. On New Year's Eve 1952, Michael Ende met the actress Ingeborg Hoffmann during a party with friends. According to Ende, he

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5304-481: The development of fantasy with their writing of horror stories. Wilde also wrote a large number of children's fantasies, collected in The Happy Prince and Other Stories (1888) and A House of Pomegranates (1891). H. Rider Haggard developed the conventions of the lost world subgenre with his novel King Solomon's Mines (1885), which presented a fantastical Africa to a European audience still unfamiliar with

5406-446: The earlier part of the 20th century, fantasy was more accepted in juvenile literature, and therefore a writer interested in fantasy often wrote for that audience, despite using concepts and themes that could form a work aimed at adults. At this time, the terminology for the genre was not settled. Many fantasies in this era were termed fairy tales, including Max Beerbohm 's " The Happy Hypocrite " (1896) and MacDonald's Phantastes . It

5508-499: The epic Mabinogion . One influential retelling of this was the fantasy work of Evangeline Walton . The Irish Ulster Cycle and Fenian Cycle have also been plentifully mined for fantasy. Its greatest influence was, however, indirect. Celtic folklore and mythology provided a major source for the Arthurian cycle of chivalric romance : the Matter of Britain . Although the subject matter

5610-509: The fantasy genre, "The Fantastic Imagination", in his book A Dish of Orts (1893). MacDonald was a major influence on both Tolkien and C. S. Lewis . The other major fantasy author of this era was William Morris, an admirer of the Middle Ages and a poet who wrote several fantastic romances and novels in the latter part of the 19th century, including The Well at the World's End (1896). Morris

5712-407: The fantasy genre; although it was unknown for centuries and so not developed in medieval legend and romance, several fantasy works have retold the tale, such as John Gardner 's Grendel . Celtic folklore and legend has been an inspiration for many fantasy works. The Welsh tradition has been particularly influential, owing to its connection to King Arthur and its collection in a single work,

5814-411: The fantasy worlds of modern works. With Empedocles ( c.  490  – c.  430 BC ), elements are often used in fantasy works as personifications of the forces of nature. India has a long tradition of fantastical stories and characters, dating back to Vedic mythology . The Panchatantra ( Fables of Bidpai ), which some scholars believe was composed around the 3rd century BC. It

5916-511: The first literary results of this trend was the Gothic novel , a genre that began in Britain with The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole . That work is considered the predecessor to both modern fantasy and modern horror fiction . Another noted Gothic novel which also contains a large amount of Arabian Nights -influenced fantasy elements is Vathek (1786) by William Thomas Beckford . In

6018-504: The five hundred pages of manuscript were complete. Over the next eighteen months he sent the manuscript to ten different publishers, but they all responded that it was "Unsuitable for our list" or "Too long for children". In the end he began to lose hope and toyed with the idea of throwing away the script. He eventually tried it at a small family publishing-house, K. Thienemann Verlag  [ de ] in Stuttgart. Michael Ende's manuscript

6120-713: The genre after World War II was Mervyn Peake 's Titus Groan (1946), the book that launched the Gormenghast series . J. R. R. Tolkien played a large role in the popularization and accessibility of the fantasy genre with his highly successful publications The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954–55). Tolkien was largely influenced by an ancient body of Anglo-Saxon myths , particularly Beowulf , as well as William Morris's romances and E. R. Eddison 's 1922 novel, The Worm Ouroboros . Tolkien's close friend C. S. Lewis , author of The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–56) and

6222-435: The genre of high fantasy —prompted a reaction. In China, the idea of fantasy literature as a distinct genre first became prevalent in the early 21st century. China has long had pre-genre stories with fantastical elements, including zhiguai , ghost stories, and miracle tales, among others. It is not uncommon for fantasy novels to be ranked on The New York Times Best Seller list , and some have been at number one on

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6324-532: The later part of the Romantic period, folklorists collected folktales, epic poems, and ballads, and released them in printed form. The Brothers Grimm were inspired by the movement of German Romanticism in their 1812 collection Grimm's Fairy Tales , and they in turn inspired other collectors. Frequently their motivation stemmed not merely from Romanticism, but from Romantic nationalism , in that many were inspired to save their own country's folklore. Sometimes, as in

6426-486: The latter part of the 16th century. The plays of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , Friedrich Schiller , and other Sturm und Drang playwrights inspired a growing faith in feeling and instinct as guides to moral behavior and were part of the German romanticism movement. Aleksandr Ostrovsky was Russia's first professional playwright). Author and playwright Agatha Christie wrote The Moustrap ,

6528-431: The list, including most recently, Brandon Sanderson in 2014, Neil Gaiman in 2013, Patrick Rothfuss and George R. R. Martin in 2011, and Terry Goodkind in 2006. Symbolism often plays a significant role in fantasy literature, often through the use of archetypal figures inspired by earlier texts or folklore . Some argue that fantasy literature and its archetypes fulfill a function for individuals and society and

6630-550: The messages are continually updated for current societies. Ursula K. Le Guin , in her essay "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie", presented the idea that language is the most crucial element of high fantasy , because it creates a sense of place. She analyzed the misuse of a formal, "olden-day" style, saying that it was a dangerous trap for fantasy writers because it was ridiculous when done wrong. She warns writers away from trying to base their style on that of masters such as Lord Dunsany and E. R. Eddison , emphasizing that language that

6732-459: The modern image of "medieval" is more influenced by the romance than by any other medieval genre, and the word medieval evokes knights, distressed damsels, dragons, and other romantic tropes. At the time of the Renaissance romance continued to be popular, and the trend was to more fantastic fiction. The English Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory (c.1408–1471) was written in prose, and

6834-641: The most influential writers of fantasy and horror in the 20th century. Despite MacDonald's future influence, and Morris' popularity at the time, it was not until around the start of the 20th century that fantasy fiction began to reach a large audience, with authors such as Lord Dunsany (1878–1957) who, following Morris's example, wrote fantasy novels, but also in the short story form. He was particularly noted for his vivid and evocative style. His style greatly influenced many writers, not always happily; Ursula K. Le Guin , in her essay on style in fantasy "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie", wryly referred to Lord Dunsany as

6936-501: The next few months, he underwent various treatments, but the disease progressed. He ultimately succumbed to the disease in Filderstadt , Germany, on 28 August 1995. Jim Button ( Jim Knopf ) series: Stand-alones: Collections: Uncollected short stories: Other sources Fantasy literature Fantasy literature is literature set in an imaginary universe , often but not always without any locations, events, or people from

7038-781: The oldest recorded form of many well-known (and some more obscure) European fairy tales. This was the beginning of a tradition that would both influence the fantasy genre and be incorporated in it, as many works of fairytale fantasy appear to this day. In a work on alchemy in the 16th century, Paracelsus (1493–1541) identified four types of beings with the four elements of alchemy: gnomes (earth elementals); undines (water); sylphs (air); and salamanders (fire). Most of these beings are found in folklore as well as alchemy, and their names are often used interchangeably with similar beings from folklore. Literary fairy tales, such as those written by Charles Perrault (1628–1703) and Madame d'Aulnoy (c.1650 – 1705), became very popular early in

7140-407: The period typically collaborated with others at some point, as critics agree Shakespeare did, mostly early and late in his career. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. In England, after the interregnum , and Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, there was a move toward neoclassical dramaturgy. Between

7242-474: The priority of reason and promoting the importance of imagination and spirituality. Its success in rehabilitating imagination was of fundamental importance to the evolution of fantasy, and its interest in medieval romances provided many motifs to modern fantasy. The Romantics invoked the medieval romance as a model for the works they wanted to produce, in contrast to the realism of the Enlightenment. One of

7344-549: The prize money of five thousand marks, Michael Ende's financial situation improved substantially, and his writing career began in earnest. After the awards ceremony, he embarked on his first reading tour, and within a year, the first Jim Knopf book was also nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award and received the Berlin Literary Prize for Youth Fiction. The second Jim Knopf novel, Jim Button and

7446-514: The problems of an increasingly technological modern society. His writings were influenced by Rudolf Steiner and his anthroposophy . Ende was also known as a proponent of economic reform, and claimed to have had the concept of aging money, or demurrage , in mind when writing Momo . A theme of his work was the loss of fantasy and magic in the modern world. Michael Ende had been fascinated by Japan since his childhood. He loved Lafcadio Hearn 's Japanese legends and ghost stories, and in 1959 he wrote

7548-465: The real world. Magic , the supernatural and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds. Fantasy literature may be directed at both children and adults. Fantasy is considered a genre of speculative fiction and is distinguished from the genres of science fiction and horror by the absence of scientific or macabre themes, respectively, though these may overlap. Historically, most works of fantasy were in written form , but since

7650-553: The subject matter significantly. For example, verisimilitude limits of the unities. Decorum fitted proper protocols for behavior and language on stage. In France, contained too many events and actions, thus, violating the 24-hour restriction of the unity of time. Neoclassicism never had as much traction in England, and Shakespeare 's plays are directly opposed to these models, while in Italy, improvised and bawdy commedia dell'arte and opera were more popular forms. One structural unit that

7752-498: The time and was already much more than a picture book. I finally wrote the last sentence ten months later, and a great stack of paper had accumulated on the desk. Michael Ende always said that ideas only came to him when the logic of the story required them. On some occasions he waited a long time for inspiration to arrive. At one point during the writing of Jim Button the plot reached a dead end. Jim and Luke were stuck among black rocks and their tank engine couldn't go any further. Ende

7854-582: The time for the International Youth Library in Munich . After their first meeting at the Bologna Children's Book Fair , Sato translated some of Ende's books into Japanese and helped answer his questions about Japanese culture . From 1977 to 1980 Michael Ende and Mariko Sato worked together to produce a translation into German of ten fairy tales by Japanese writer Kenji Miyazawa . The German text

7956-405: The two lines, I hadn't a clue how the third line might go. I didn't start out with a concept or a plan—I just left myself drift from one sentence and one thought to the next. That's how I discovered that writing could be an adventure. The story carried on growing, new characters started appearing, and to my astonishment different plotlines began to weave together. The manuscript was getting longer all

8058-500: The villain's language might be inappropriate if vulgar. Dramatist The earliest playwrights in Western literature with surviving works are the Ancient Greeks . William Shakespeare is amongst the most famous playwrights in literature, both in England and across the world. The word "play" is from Middle English pleye , from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word wright

8160-413: The way in which everyday circumstances were shaped into intricate rituals, such as the tea ceremony. There was, he realized, a sharp contrast between the traditions of ancient Japan and its industry-oriented modern-day society. Ende won a devoted following in Japan, and by 1993 over two million copies of Momo and The Neverending Story had been sold in Japan. In 1986 Michael Ende was invited to attend

8262-582: The work dominates the Arthurian literature. Arthurian motifs have appeared steadily in literature from its publication, though the works have been a mix of fantasy and non-fantasy works. At the time, it and the Spanish Amadis de Gaula (1508), which was also written in prose, spawned many imitators, and the genre was popularly well-received. It later produced such masterpieces of Renaissance poetry as Ludovico Ariosto 's Orlando furioso and Torquato Tasso 's Gerusalemme Liberata . Ariosto's tale in particular

8364-472: Was a good experience, a healthy experience. Anyone interested in writing should be made to do that sort of thing. It doesn't have to be restricted to acting. It could be any kind of practical activity like cabinet making—learning how to construct a cabinet in which the doors fit properly." In Ende's view, practical training had the potential to be more useful than a literary degree. Thanks to the numerous contacts of his girlfriend Ingeborg Hoffmann , Michael Ende

8466-436: Was a source text for many fantasies of adventure. During the Renaissance , Giovanni Francesco Straparola wrote and published The Facetious Nights of Straparola (1550–1555), a collection of stories of which many are literary fairy tales . Giambattista Basile wrote and published the Pentamerone , which was the first collection of stories to contain solely what would later be known as fairy tales. The two works include

8568-566: Was accepted by company director Lotte Weitbrecht who liked the story. Her only stipulation was that the manuscript had to be published as two separate books. The first of the Jim Button novels was published in 1960. About a year later, on the morning of the announcement that his novel, Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver , had won the German Prize for Children's Fiction, Ende was being sued by his landlady for seven months' rent back payment. With

8670-518: Was almost tempted to cast myself into the fire like a moth into the light. He was horrified, however, by the 1943 Hamburg bombing , which he experienced while visiting his paternal uncle. At the first available opportunity his uncle put him on a train back to Munich. There, Ende attended the Maximillians Gymnasium until schools were closed as the air raids intensified and pupils were evacuated. Ende returned to Garmisch-Partenkirchen , where he

8772-404: Was at a loss to think of a way out of the adventure, but cutting the episode struck him as disingenuous. Three weeks later he was about to shelve the novel when suddenly he had an idea—the steam from the tank engine could freeze and cover the rocks in snow, thus saving his characters from their scrape. "In my case, writing is primarily a question of patience," he once commented. After nearly a year

8874-622: Was billeted in a boarding-house, Haus Kramerhof and later in Haus Roseneck. It was there that his interest in German poetry was awakened. As well as writing his own poetry, he began to study various literary movements and styles. As most recent German poetry was banned as part of censorship in Nazi Germany , he instead studied the German Romantic poet Novalis , whose Hymns to the Night made

8976-578: Was born 12 November 1929 in Garmisch , Bavaria , the only child of the surrealist painter Edgar Ende and Luise Bartholomä Ende, a physiotherapist. In 1935, when Michael was six, the Ende family moved to the "artists' quarter of Schwabing " in Munich (Haase). Growing up in this rich artistic and literary environment influenced Ende's later writing. In 1936, his father's work was declared " degenerate art " and banned by

9078-720: Was dedicated to Hiroshima , and was never performed. Ende decided that he wanted to be a playwright, but financial considerations ruled out a university degree, so in 1948 he auditioned for the Otto Falckenberg School of the Performing Arts in Munich and was granted a two-year scholarship (Haase). On leaving drama school, his first job as an actor took him to a provincial theatre company in Schleswig-Holstein. The troupe travelled from town to town by bus, usually performing on makeshift stages, surrounded by beer, smoke and

9180-505: Was heavily reworked by the authors, these romances developed marvels until they became independent of the original folklore and fictional, an important stage in the development of fantasy. Romance or chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that reworked legends , fairy tales , and history to suit the readers' and hearers' tastes, but by c.  1600 they were out of fashion, and Miguel de Cervantes famously burlesqued them in his novel Don Quixote . Still,

9282-412: Was inspired by the medieval sagas, and his writing was deliberately archaic in the style of the chivalric romances . Morris's work represented an important milestone in the history of fantasy, as while other writers wrote of foreign lands or of dream worlds , Morris was the first to set his stories in an entirely invented world . Authors such as Edgar Allan Poe and Oscar Wilde also contributed to

9384-434: Was introduced to a variety of cabaret groups. In 1955, Therese Angeloff  [ de ] , head of Die kleinen Fische  [ de ] (the 'Little Fish' cabaret), commissioned Ende to write a piece in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Friedrich Schiller 's death. Ende produced a sketch in which a statue of Schiller was interviewed about newsworthy issues, and replied with quotes from Schiller's work. "There

9486-449: Was modeled more on Tudor and Elizabethan English, and his stories were filled with vigorous characters in glorious adventures. Eddison's most famous work is The Worm Ouroboros (1922), a long heroic fantasy set on an imaginary version of the planet Mercury. Literary critics of the era began to take an interest in "fantasy" as a genre of writing, and also to argue that it was a genre worthy of serious consideration. Herbert Read devoted

9588-578: Was motivated by more self-interest: Ende had fallen in love with a girl three years his senior, and her parents funded his two-year stay in Stuttgart to keep the pair apart. It was at this time that he first began to write stories ("Michael," par. 3). He aspired to be a " dramatist ," but wrote mostly short stories and poetry (Haase). During his time in Stuttgart, Ende first encountered Expressionist and Dadaist writing and began schooling himself in literature. He studied Theodor Däubler , Yvan Goll , Else Lasker-Schüler and Alfred Mombert , but his real love

9690-438: Was never published, but their working partnership turned into a friendship. Mariko Sato accompanied him on a number of trips to Japan. The first trip took place in 1977 and included visits to Tokyo and Kyoto . For the first time Ende was able to experience Kabuki and Noh theatre , and was greatly impressed by traditional Japanese drama. Michael Ende had no children. In June 1994, Ende was diagnosed with stomach cancer . Over

9792-421: Was not until 1923 that the term "fantasist" was used to describe a writer (in this case, Oscar Wilde) who wrote fantasy fiction. The name "fantasy" was not developed until later; as late as J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit (1937), the term "fairy tale" was still being used. An important factor in the development of the fantasy genre was the arrival of magazines devoted to fantasy fiction. The first such publication

9894-548: Was popular in Victorian times , with the works of writers such as Mary Shelley , William Morris, George MacDonald, and Charles Dodgson reaching wider audiences. Hans Christian Andersen took a new approach to fairy tales by creating original stories told in a serious fashion. From this origin, John Ruskin wrote The King of the Golden River (1851), a fairy tale that included complex levels of characterization and created in

9996-410: Was rapturous applause, and commissions arrived from other cabarets too." Michael Ende began to compose sketches, chansons and monologues. He also worked as a film critic during the 1950s. In the late 1950s, Ende wrote his first novel Jim Button . I sat down at my desk and wrote: "The country in which the engine-driver, Luke, lived was called Morrowland. It was a rather small country." Once I'd written

10098-495: Was relocated to the Munich district of Solln. In 1945, Edgar Ende was taken as a prisoner of war by American GIs , but was released soon after the end of the war. In 1945, German youths as young as fourteen were drafted into the Volkssturm and sent to war against the advancing Allied armies. Three of Michael Ende's classmates were killed on their first day of combat. Ende was also drafted, but tore up his call-up papers and joined

10200-428: Was standing at an ivy-covered counter serving as barman, when Hoffmann strode towards him, looking "flame-haired, fiery and chic". She declaimed: "Leaning up against the ivy-covered wall / Of this old terrace"; " Mörike ", Ende said instantly, recognizing the quotation. Hoffmann, eight years his senior, made a big impression on Ende. She in turn was intrigued by his literary cultivation and artistic inclinations. They began

10302-489: Was the German magazine Der Orchideengarten which ran from 1919 to 1921. In 1923, the first English-language fantasy fiction magazine, Weird Tales , was created. Many other similar magazines eventually followed. and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction H. P. Lovecraft was deeply influenced by Edgar Allan Poe and to a somewhat lesser extent, by Lord Dunsany; with his Cthulhu Mythos stories, he became one of

10404-436: Was the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke , Stefan George and Georg Trakl . He also made his first attempts at acting, performing with friends in Stuttgart's America House. He was involved in productions of Chekhov 's one-act comedy "The Bear", in which he played the principal role, and in the German premiere of Jean Cocteau 's Orpheus . Ende's first play "Denn die Stunde drängt (As Time is Running Out)" dates to this period. It

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