Overview

The company was created in 1923 by Paul Zsolnay. It was the most successful publishing company during the interregnum period, publishing authors such as John Galsworthy

John Galsworthy

John Galsworthy OM was an English novelist and playwright. Notable works include The Forsyte Saga and its sequels, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter...

, H.G. Wells, Pearl S. Buck

Pearl S. Buck

Pearl Sydenstricker Buck also known by her Chinese name Sai Zhenzhu , was an American writer who spent most of her time until 1934 in China. Her novel The Good Earth was the best-selling fiction book in the U.S. in 1931 and 1932, and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932...

, A.J. Cronin, Franz Werfel

Franz Werfel

Franz Werfel was an Austrian-Bohemian novelist, playwright, and poet.- Biography :Born in Prague , Werfel was the first of three children of a wealthy manufacturer of gloves and leather goods. His mother, Albine Kussi, was the daughter of a mill owner...

, Felix Salten

Felix Salten

Felix Salten was an Austrian author and critic in Vienna. His most famous work is Bambi .-Life:...

, Robert Neumann, Roda Roda, Hilde Spiel, Ernst Lothar

Ernst Lothar

Ernst Lothar was a Moravian-Austrian writer, theatre director/manager and producer.He was born Ernst Lothar Müller, and as Müller is common German surname, he dropped it. His brother, Hans Müller-Einigen, went the other way and added a surname.-Biography:...

, Hans Kaltneker, Friedrich Torberg

Friedrich Torberg

Friedrich Torberg is the pen-name of Friedrich Kantor, an Austrian writer.- Biography :...

, Leo Perutz

Leo Perutz

Leopold Perutz was an Austrian novelist and mathematician. He was born in Prague and was thus a citizen of the Austro-Hungarian Empire...

, Heinrich Mann

Heinrich Mann

Luiz Heinrich Mann was a German novelist who wrote works with strong social themes. His attacks on the authoritarian and increasingly militaristic nature of pre-World War II German society led to his exile in 1933.-Life and work:Born in Lübeck as the oldest child of Thomas Johann Heinrich Mann...

, Kasimir Edschmid, Carl Sternheim

Carl Sternheim

Carl Sternheim was a German playwright and short story writer. One of the major exponents of German Expressionism, he especially satirized the moral sensibilities of the emerging German middle class during the Wilhelmine period.-Biography:Born in Leipzig to a Jewish banker and his Protestant wife...

, Emil Ludwig

Emil Ludwig

Emil Ludwig was a German author, known for his biographies.-Biography:Emil Ludwig was born in Breslau, now part of Poland. Ludwig studied law but chose writing as a career. At first he wrote plays and novella, but also worked as a journalist...

, Walter von Molo

Walter von Molo

Walter Ritter/Reichsritter von Molo was a Czech-born Austrian writer.- Life :...

, and Frank Thiess

Frank Thiess

Frank Thiess was a German writer.-Biography:Born in Eluisenstein, Russian Livonia , Thiess grew up in Berlin, where his family moved after Russia had annexed Livonia. He worked as a journalist for four years until he was enlisted into the German army in World War I...

.

In 1934, Paul Zsolnay started publishing Nazi writers after many of his erstwhile writers had been censored; however, by April 1939, the Gestapo

Gestapo

The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...

 closed down the company. Meanwhile, Paul Zsolnay lived in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 from 1938 to 1946. During the Second World War, the company was taken over by Karl H. Bischoff Verlag.