Trees:
An Anthology of Writings and Paintings

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature Hermann Hesse

Selected by Volker Michel

Translated from the German by Damion Searls

“One of humanity’s most beautiful love letters to trees.”
― The Marginalian

“Nature frequently brings out our deepest thoughts, but few can express those thoughts better than Hermann Hesse does in this anthology.”
—New York Journal of Books

“This beautiful collection of some of his essays and poems, focused on trees, will be balm for your soul.”
—Manhattan Book Review

“Superbly illustrated with 31 full-color watercolors painted by Hermann Hesse, ‘Trees: An Anthology of Writings and Paintings’ is extraordinary and unreservedly recommended.”
― Midwest Book Review

“A lovely book….Right into the heart of the matter.”
—Patheos

“Lovingly put together … [with] many beautiful and moving passages from Hesse’s essays, novels, and poems to accompany the images.”
—Today’s American Catholic

This elegant collection of Hermann Hesse’s essays, poems, and passages on trees, accompanied by thirty-two of his hand-painted watercolor illustrations, reveals his sacred understanding of trees as symbols of transcendence and rebirth. Trees mirrors landscapes as Hesse experienced them, both artistically and spiritually, and reminds us that the life of a tree is also a metaphor for our own life of perseverance, happiness, and purpose.

Hermann Hesse was born in 1877 in Calw, Germany. He rose to become a celebrated author and the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946. As the son of missionaries, he developed a fascination with self-discovery and spiritual explorations, an interest also likely due in part to his lifelong struggle with depression, which led him to study Sigmund Freud and, later, to undergo psychoanalysis with Carl Jung. In 1912 he moved to Switzerland, where he wrote his best-known books, including the classic Siddhartha; composed poetry; and painted landscapes. He passed away in 1962 in Montagnola, Switzerland. Hesse is one of the most widely translated authors of the twentieth century; his work continues to have influence worldwide.

Volker Michels, the world’s foremost authority on Hermann Hesse’s work, manages the Nobel laureate’s literary and artistic estate. Damion Searls is the translator of more than fifty books, including Hermann Hesse’s Demian, and the recipient of numerous awards.

Hardcover | cloth
5 x 7 inches | 136 pages | 32 full-color watercolors painted by Hermann Hesse
ISBN-13: 978-1-7378327-1-3
$30.00 | Nature
May 2022