Manfred Kyber, born on March 1, 1880 in Riga, Latvia (then under Russian rule), grew up on his father's estate. He studied philosophy in Leipzig and later moved to Berlin, where he lived for ten years and published his first works. He lived in Löwenstein, Württemberg (southern Germany) since 1923. In addition to poems, a novel, plays, theater criticism and an introduction to occultism, he primarily wrote fairy tales and animal stories – partially humorous, partially serious – which, reminiscent of La Fontaine, humanize animals to a certain degree to convey their feelings and elaborate on philosophical questions. He became famous for his stories "Unter Tieren" ("Among Animals"). He was a pacifist and advocate of animals' rights. He died on March 10, 1933 in Löwenstein.
There is a Manfred Kyber museum in Löwenstein near Heilbronn, Germany.
His Great Moment (translation of the story Der große Augenblick)
Der Schmied vom Eiland, poems, 1908
Unter Tieren, animal stories, 1912
Genius astri [Engl. translation: Genius astri: thirty-three poems], poems, 1918
Märchen, fairy tales, 1920
Im Gang der Uhr, novellas, 1922
Einführung in das Gesamtgebiet des Okkultismus, 1923
Neue Tiergeschichten, animal stories, 1926
Puppenspiel, fairy tale, 1928
Die drei Lichter der kleinen Veronika [Engl. translation: The Three
Candles of Little Veronica: The Story of a Child's Soul in This World and the
Other], novel, 1920
Gesammelte Tiergeschichten, collected animal stories (combines Unter
Tieren and Neue Tiergeschichten; the collection won the Literature Award of the
Bureau International Humanitaire Zoophile in Geneva in 1930), 1934
Gesammelte Märchen, collected fairy tales, 1935
Other English translations (all out of
print)
The Mouseball
The Little Slipper Man
Compiled by J. Beilharz, December 2001