As for the text, we have used N.H. Priday’s 1923 English translation. It is my favorite translation because it possesses a lyricism that seems to be lacking in all subsequent translations. Based on my limited research, I believe that lyricism may have been a result of Priday’s role as a Second Lieutenant in the British Army during World War I. Considering Demian is bookended with scenes from the First World War (and circling back to authenticity), I believe Priday may have been able to connect with the material in a way that later translators simply couldn’t. I would love to know more about N.H. Priday and how he came to translate Demian, but, sadly, my research turned up very little. Perhaps someone else knows or can discover more about him?

Concerning editing, we have updated some hyphenated words to reflect their modern usage (to-day is now today, good-bye has become goodbye, and so on), and although Priday was English, there seemed to be scant British spellings in the text, possibly an artifact of editing for American publication. At any rate, we have chosen to use mostly American spellings throughout our edition. Additionally, Hesse was incredibly well-read and possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of German literature, so we’ve done extensive work on the footnotes to help clarify his references when needed.

To read our full thoughts, check out “…everyone is important, eternal, divine.”

• One: Two Worlds
• Two: Cain
• Three: The Thief on the Cross
• Four: Beatrice
• Five: The Bird Fights Its Way Out of the Egg
• Six: Jacob Wrestles with God
• Seven: Mother Eve
• Eight: Beginning of the End

“Such dispassionate lucidity and fearless honesty.” —Timothy Leary

“The significance of Hesse’s writing lies in its universality of application.” —Emily Schossberger, Chicago Sun

“Hesse’s vision is again reaching out to another generation searching for meaning in an age of anxiety and war.” —Ralph Freedman

“From Demian to Steppenwolf, Hesse was bent on self-quest, obsessed by life’s dichotomy, and absorbed by its complexity of polarities.” —Joseph Mileck, Hermann Hesse: Life and Art

“Hesse was a great writer in precisely the modern sense: complex, subtle, allusive; alive to the importance of play, to the desperate yet frolicsome game of writing.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Hesse’s young readers, then and now, were not wrong to feel that he was speaking directly to them. The stories he tells appeal to young people because they keep faith with the powerful emotions of adolescence, which most adults forget or outgrow—the woundedness, the exaltation, the enormous demands on life.” —The New Yorker

“A classic document of the revolt against the unreflected life. No other German writer has spoken out as passionately as Hesse. The autobiographical undercurrent gives Demian an existential intensity and a depth of understanding that are rare in contemporary fiction.” —Saturday Review

“The electrifying influence exercised on a whole generation after the First World War by Demian is unforgettable. With uncanny accuracy this poetic work struck the nerve of the times and called forth grateful rapture from a whole youthful generation who believed that an interpreter of their innermost life had risen from the midst . . . A small volume; but it is often books of small size that exert the greatest dynamic power.” —Thomas Mann

Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair’s Youth