Josef Leitgeb

Leitgeb, Josef (Bischofshofen, Austria, 1897-1952, Innsbruck), served in both wars, in 1914-18 with the Kaiserjäger. Between the two wars he was a teacher in Tyrol, and after 1945 a school inspector there. His sensitive poetry was published in Musik der Landschaft (1935), Läuterungen (1938), Vita somnium breve (1943), and Lebenszeichen (1953). His novels, Kinderlegende (1934), Christian und Brigitte (1936), and, last and best, perhaps because it is based largely on his own early life, Das unversehrte Jahr (1948), are concerned with the lives and problems of young people. Sämtliche Gedichte were published in 1953 and Abschied und fernes Bild. Erzählungen und Essays in 1959.