Karl Friedrich May

Karl May was a German author who wrote over 70 books, mostly novels of travel and adventure set in various regions of the world. He was one of the most popular and best-selling German writers of all time, with about 200 million copies sold worldwide. His stories influenced many generations of readers and inspired several adaptations for film, theatre, audio and comics. May was born in 1842 in Ernstthal, a poor village in Saxony. He had a difficult childhood, marked by poverty, illness and family tragedies. He lost his eyesight shortly after birth, but regained it partially when he was four years old. He had a talent for music and learned to play several instruments. He also developed a vivid imagination and a love for reading. May wanted to become a teacher, but his career was ruined by several incidents of theft and fraud that landed him in prison for a total of eight years. During his imprisonment, he educated himself by reading extensively and making plans for his future literary works. He also converted to Catholicism and claimed to have experienced a moral regeneration. After his release in 1874, May began to write stories for various magazines and newspapers. He soon became famous for his tales of exotic adventures, featuring characters such as Winnetou, the noble Apache chief, Old Shatterhand, his German blood brother, Kara Ben Nemsi, the traveler in the Orient, and Hadji Halef Omar, his faithful companion. May's stories were based on his extensive research and his own imagination, as he had never visited the places he described. He claimed to have experienced his adventures in a kind of clairvoyant vision. May's popularity grew rapidly, especially among young readers who admired his heroes and their values of friendship, justice and peace. He also gained recognition from some literary critics and fellow writers, such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling and Hermann Hesse. However, he also faced criticism and controversy from others who accused him of plagiarism, falsification and deception. Some of his detractors even tried to expose him as a fraud by revealing his criminal past. In 1899, May finally traveled to the Orient with his second wife Klara, whom he married after the death of his first wife Emma. He visited Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Turkey and Greece. He later wrote about his impressions in his travelogues In the Land of the Mahdi and In the Orient . In 1908, he also visited America with Klara and his friend Patty Frank. He saw some of the places he had written about in his Western novels, such as New York, Niagara Falls, Colorado and New Mexico. He met some Native Americans and received an honorary membership in the Sioux tribe. May returned to Germany in 1909 and settled in Radebeul near Dresden. He devoted himself to writing his last works, which were more philosophical and spiritual in nature. He also became involved in various humanitarian causes and founded his own publishing house. He died in 1912 at the age of 70 from a heart attack. May's legacy is still alive today. His novels have been translated into many languages and continue to be read by millions of fans around the world. His characters have become cultural icons and symbols of adventure and idealism. His works have also influenced many artists and thinkers from different fields and backgrounds.