Biography of Mira Lobe

Mira Lobe (1913-1995), born Hilde Mirjam Rosenthal, was one of the most important German-language authors of children’s and young people’s literature of the twentieth century. Her works include enduring classics such as ‘The Grandma in the Apple Tree’ (1965), ‘I Am Me’ (1972), ‘The Robber Bride’ (1974), ‘Come, Said The Cat’ (1975), and ‘Valerie and the Good-Night Swing’ (1981). Her position among writers of children’s and young people’s literature was exceptional. She was a champion and role model for many, being seen as the doyenne of the genre in Austria. She received the Austrian State Prize for Children’s and Young People’s Literature on multiple occasions and in 1980 was the first author to receive the Austrian Achievement Award for Children’s and Young People’s Literature for her life’s work of more than one hundred titles.

This will be the first biography and detailed analysis of Mira Lobe’s work. Her life and work are symptomatic of important developments in the children’s and young people’s literature across the first fifty years of the Austrian Second Republic. This biographical and cultural historical study, funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), will therefore also make a contribution to a broader account of cultural politics in Austria. Intercultural aspects such as Lobe’s experiences in 1920s and 1930s Germany and her years of exile in Mandate Palestine and Israel are further important areas. Finally, the biographical research will be embedded in a wider social context and the author’s collected works will be examined systematically according to theme, motif and genre. The research draws on Mira Lobe’s papers, which are still in private hands.

On completion of the project an extensive exhibition is planned at the Wien Museum, to open 5 November 2014. It will focus on Mira Lobe and her illustrators, above all Susi Weigel (1914-1990).