Stefan Zweig was born in 1881 in Vienna to a wealthy Austrian-Jewish family. Recognition as a writer came early for Zweig; by the age of forty, he had already won literary fame. In 1934, with Nazism entrenched, Zweig left Austria for England, and became a British citizen in 1940. In 1941 he and his second wife went to Brazil, where they committed suicide. Zweig's best-known works of fiction are Beware of Pity (1939) and Chess (1942), but his most outstanding accomplishments were his many biographies, which were based on psychological interpretation.

A brilliant writer—New York TimesOne of the joys of recent years is the translation into English of Stefan Zweig's stories—Edmund de WaalStefan Zweig was a late and magnificent bloom from the hothouse of fin de siecle Vienna—The Wall Street JournalZweig is one of the masters of the short story and novella, and by 'one of the masters' I mean that he's up there with Maupassant, Chekhov, James, Poe, or indeed anyone you care to name—Nick Lezard, GuardianA new favourite writer of mine—Wes AndersonPerhaps the best chess story ever written, perhaps the best about any game—EconomistHis great achievement in short form—The Times