Author. Klaus Heinrich Thomas Mann was a German-born American novelist, essayist, and playwright. He was the oldest son of 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature recipient, Thomas Mann. His mother’s family were wealthy Jewish industrialists and railroad owners. At the age of eleven, he nearly died of a ruptured appendix. He was very close to his twelve-month-older sister, Erika, to the point they were called “twins.” He and his siblings all attended private schools, and in 1923 he left school to make his fame in literature. His works include “Alexander” in 1929, “Pathetic Symphony” in 1936, and the autobiographical “Turning Point” in 1942. He also wrote “The Pious Dance,” one of the first novel about homosexuals in German literature. After becoming engaged to be married to Pamela Wedekind, the young couple moved to Berlin where he was a theater critic. In 1924 he wrote “Anja and Esther,” a play about "a neurotic quartet of four boys and girls who "were madly in love with each other". The play successfully premiered on October 20, 1925 in Munich and the next week in Hamburg. He, Pamela, Erika and Erika’s friend all acted together in the play, riding on their wave of fame as the "poets' children." Their photographs appeared on the cover of a Berlin magazine in their stage attire and makeup. With the money that they made , the four young actors toured the world during the “Roaring Twenties,” enjoying the night life, and had many luxuries. By 1932 he had published a dozen books and plays. The politics in Germany was at an unrest with the Weimar Republic ending and this would impact his family’s life. In 1933 he and Erika were on holiday in France when Adolph Hitler took power, and it was their chauffer, who warned them of the danger of them returning to Germany. His father and the rest of the family fled to Austria then France and finally to the United States, but he went to the Netherland to write anti-Nazi articles for a magazine. His novel, “Mephisto,” was published by an Amsterdam publisher in 1936, and an East Berlin edition was released in 1956. It was, however, not permitted to be published in West Germany until 1981. In 1938 he and his sister covered the Spanish Civil War as reporters and published in 1940 “The Other Germany.” Joining his family in the United States, he became a United States citizen in 1943. After enlisting in the United States army, he was assigned to "psychological warfare”. At the end of the war, he became distraught over his lack of literary success and financial woes, he moved back and forth between Rome, Amsterdam, California and New York. His literary life was under his father's shadow. The family was linked to severe depression. He made several attempts to kill himself. While in Los Angeles in 1948 he attempted suicide by slitting his wrists, taking pills and turning on the gas. His father’s two sisters and later in 1977 his youngest brother, all died from suicide. Not approving of his life-style, the FBI had compiled a huge file on him. He was annoyed that his friends from his younger years had stayed in Germany to become successful stage performers for the Nazi forces. He died from an overdose of sleeping pills. His father, who was on a lecture tour, did not attend his funeral and said, “how could he do this to his mother?”