Frank Thiess

Frank Thiess was a German writer.

Biography

Born in Eluisenstein, Kreis Riga, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire, Thiess grew up in Berlin. He worked as a journalist before fighting in World [War I]. Discharged after a few months because of a heart condition, he returned to Berlin and journalism. Within a few years, however. he decided to devote himself full-time to writing. His early novels were focussed on contemporary subjects — Time magazine once called him "the hot trumpet in Germany's jazz age." He married Florence Losey, an American singer. From the 1930s on, he concentrated on historical novels.
His 1936 novel, Tsushima, translated into English as The Voyage of Forgotten Men, recounted the journey of the Russian Second Pacific Squadron, under the command of Admiral Rozhestvensky, from the Baltic Sea to the Sea of Japan, and its defeat by the Japanese fleet at the Battle of Tsushima in 1905.
His two-part novel, Neapolitanische Legende and Caruso in Sorrent, was based on the life and career of the great Italian tenor, Enrico Caruso.
Thiess remained in Nazi Germany during World War II.
Thiess died 1977 in Darmstadt.