Anonymously published in 1906, it has long been rumored to have been penned by Salten. Beginning when Josephine is 5 years old, it is a veritable checklist of broken taboos that revels in its shock value, all before the protagonist reaches age 14. While Bambi may be Salten’s international claim to fame, among Austrians, another title has long been associated with the author, which could not lay further on the thematic spectrum: Josephine Mutzenbacher, a pornographic fictional memoir retelling the childhood of a prostitute. Aside from that, his convincing anthropomorphisms were what most inspired Disney – alongside animal welfare activists. The sheer wonder of experiencing nature on all sensory levels comes through in his sharp, masterful descriptions of the teeming life surrounding him. While the Disney version conveys the pure charm and delight of woodland critters, the book is a testament to the countless hours the author spent alone in the heart of the forest. Salten’s most successful work, Bambi – for which he was only paid $1,000 by Disney for the book rights – provides great insight into the time he spent in the woods pursuing one of his favorite hobbies, hunting. Presented at MUSA and the Vienna City Hall Library and made possible by recent acquisitions from the Salten estate, it is a tribute to a literary icon whose relevance to the Wiener Modernehas been widely “overshadowed” by the book he is most remembered for. Still, as his name is rarely associated with his most famous work, to many, he remains the most prolific Viennese writer you’ve never heard of.īeyond Bambi: Felix Salten and the Discovery of Viennese Modernism seeks to set that record straight on the 75th anniversary of Salten’s death, featuring a plethora of letters, articles, manuscripts and diary entries, as well as photos, paintings, posters and film clips accompanied by a 500+-page biographical catalogue, showing the astounding breadth of his inspiration and influence. But that was far from his only work: A noted writer, journalist and critic during the fervently creative and potent era of fin de siècle Vienna, he “broke into the world, seizing everything it had to offer, and didn’t let go, always ready and willing to get into the ring with life and bring it to its knees,” as his colleague, writer Richard Specht, once described him. Indeed, he did just that: Salten achieved international fame after his 1923 novel Bambi was translated for the American market, eventually culminating in a beloved 1942 Disney classic. One of the first things that catches your eye at the current exhibition on author Felix Salten is a photo of the writer as a young man, posing among friends at the Prater in 1911: Handsome and defiant, his head firmly resting on the ample bosom of a lady friend, he looks directly into the camera and at the world he is ready to conquer, daring us to say otherwise.

Bambi author felix