Did you know that the writer of Bambi is also of Hungarian origins?

Felix Salten published his world-famous book, Bambi, in 1923, and Walt Disney made an even more famous animated film from it in 1942. However, only a few know that Mr Salten was of Hungarian origins.

According to Index, Mr Salten was born on September 6, 1869, under the name of Zsigmond Salzmann in Budapest. He was the grandson of an Orthodox rabbi. When he was only four weeks old, his family moved to Vienna, Austria. That is because the city granted full citizenship to Jews in 1867, so many Jews immigrated there during the late 19th century. Since his father became bankrupt, he could not finish his schooling, and the 16-year-old boy started to work for an insurance agency. He also began submitting poems and book reviews to journals.

As a result, he could start working as a journalist and editor for the Allgemeine Kunst-Chronik or the Frankfurter Zeitung. He was always interested in literature and wrote analyses and papers about poems and books.

He became famous thanks to his obituary written about Emile Zola. 

He was a well-known literary critic and published his works including essays, novels, and guide books one after the other, one book per year on average. Since antisemitism was growing in the 1930s, he had to leave Austria. After he went to Switzerland, the German government banned all his works. He lived in Zürich until his death on October 8, 1945.