Austrian novelist and journalist, author of children's books including the classic "Bambi," a sensitively told subjective story of the life of a wild deer. The close parallel between the fawn becoming a stag and a human child becoming an adult gives the book its moral overtone. Scholars believe that he is also the anonymous author of erotica told from the female point of view of the character Josephine Mutzenbacher.
Austrian writer, best known as the original author of "Bambi, a Life in the Woods" , which was adapted for the screen by Larry Morey for Disney in 1942.
In 1900 he published his first collection of short stories. In 1901 he initiated Viennas first, short-lived literary cabaret Jung-Wiener Theater Zum lieben Augustin.
Salten is now considered to be the anonymous author of a celebrated erotic novel, Josephine Mutzenbacher: The Life Story of a Viennese Whore, as Told by Herself (1906).
When he was four weeks old, his family relocated to Vienna, Austria. Many Jews were immigrating into the city during the late 19th century because Vienna had granted full citizenship to Jews in 1867.
When his father became bankrupt, the sixteen-year-old Salten quit school and began working for an insurance agency.
Life in Austria became perilous for a prominent Jew during the 1930s. Adolf Hitler had Saltens books banned in 1936. Two years later, after Germanys annexation of Austria, Salten moved to Zurich, Switzerland, with his wife, and spent there his final years.
He was publishing, on an average, one book a year, of plays, short stories, novels, travel books, and essay collections.
His stories Perri and The Hound of Florence inspired the Disney films Perri and The Shaggy Dog.
He wrote also film scripts and librettos for operettas. In 1927 he became president of the Austrian P.E.N. club as successor of Arthur Schnitzler.
His most famous work is Bambi. It was translated into English in 1928 and became a Book-of-the-Month Club success. In 1933, he sold the film rights to the American director Sidney Franklin for only $1,000, and Franklin later transferred the rights to the Walt Disney studios, which formed the basis of the 1942 animated classic, Bambi.
He also wrote for nearly all the major newspapers of Vienna. In 1906 Salten went to Ullstein as an editor in chief of the B.Z. am Mittag and the Berliner Morgenpost, but relocated to Vienna some months later.
He got married with the stage actress Ottilie Metzel in 1902 which also influenced his later plays and novels in which the topic "marriage" became more importance.
Saltens books became prohibited in the national socialist Germany and he got into a financial distress. Finally his daughter who was married in Switzerland was able to secure that Felix Salten and his wife were allowed to immigrate to Switzerland. There he died in 1945 in Zurich.
The author and screen writer Felix Salten first worked for an affirmation before he published his probably first poem called "An der schnen blauen Donau" in 1889.
Felix Salten came in touch with the still young film business in 1913 and he wrote several scripts for silent movies like "Der Shylock von Krakau" , "Der Narr des Schicksals" - he was also the director of this movie and "Dr. Schotte" (1918).
His writing career was especially in the 20s very successful and he published popular novels and became a demanded author. To these books belong "Der Hund von Florenz", "Die Jugend des Eichhrnchens Perri" and especially "Bambi". All three animal stories were later filmed by Walt Disney - Bambi belongs till today to one of the most successful animation movies.
He became an editor for the "Wiener Allgemeinen Zeitung" in 1894 and was responsible for the category theater. Eight years later he changed to "Die Zeit", where he was able thanks to his acquaintanceship with archduke Leopold Ferdinand to write juicy details and scandals which soon made him famous within Europe. He finally became a leading journalist in Europe.
He mingled with members of the "Jung-Wien" and there came friendships with authors like Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Hermann Bahr and Arthur Schnitzler into being.
