Maria Janitschek
Maria Janitschek née Tölk was a German writer of Austrian origin. She wrote under the pseudonym of Marius Stein.
Life
Born the illegitimate child of a military officer, she was raised by her mother Anna Tölk in impoverished circumstances and educated in a Hungarian convent school. When she was 19, she moved with her mother to Graz where she published her first articles as a journalist under the pseudonym Marius Stein. The newspapers Moderne Dichtung and Wiener Rundschau numbered among her employers. At age 23 she married Hubert Janitschek, a professor of art history. The couple lived in Strassburg and Leipzig. Her husband died in 1893 and Maria moved to Berlin and later to Munich.
Work
Her first published books were collections of poetry and short stories. These appealed to the interests of the bourgeois women's movement in the topics of their works: the problems of marriage and love for women, treated in a manner that at the time was very liberal. In 1889 she published her first volume of poems Irdische und unirdische Träume, which included the highly criticized poem "Ein modernes Weib". Germany banned her short story collection Die neue Eva in 1909. She considered Émile Zola, Henrik Ibsen, and Leo Tolstoy to be her role models. Her works often have strong female characters who become merciless avengers when wrongs are done to them. In her epic works, she explored the dualism between the sensible and the emotional side of people.
Selected writings
Legenden und Geschichten, ? 1885Irdische und unirdische Träume, ? 1889Atlas, Novella, Berlin 1893Buch der Freiheit, Anthology, Ed Karl Henckell, Berlin 1893Im Sommerwind, poem, Leipzig 1895Ninive, Novel, Leipzig 1896Vom Weibe - Charakterzeichnungen, Berlin 1896Der Schleifstein - ein Lebensbild, Leipzig 1896Sonnenblumen, Anthology, Ed. Karl Henckell, Stuttgart 1896Gelandet, Leipzig 1897Kreuzfahrer, Short Story, Leipzig 1897Die Amazonenschlacht, Novel, Leipzig 1897Ueberm Thal in: Nord und Süd - Eine deutsche Monatsschrift, Ed. Paul Lindau, Breslau 1898, Vol. 84Frauenkraft Novellen, Berlin 1900Vom Weibe - Charakterzeichnungen, Berlin 1901Auf weiten Flügeln, Novellas, Leipzig 1902Die neue Eva, Novellas, Leipzig/Berlin 1902Maiblumen,, Leipzig 1902Feuerlilie,, Leipzig 1902Pfingstsonne, Novella, Breslau 1903Mimikry - Ein Stück modernes Leben, Novel, Leipzig 1903Esclarmonde - Ihr Lieben und Leiden, Stuttgart 1906Eine Liebesnacht, Novel, ? 1908Lustige Ehen - eine Geschichte, in der sich alle kriegen, Leipzig 1910Olympier überm Tal, Two Novellas, Berlin ca. 1910Die Sterne des Herrn Ezelin, Novel, Leipzig 1915Der rote Teufel, Novel, Leipzig 1916Wildes Blut, Berlin 1916Im Finstern, Novel, Leipzig ca. 1920Kinder der Puszta, Novel, ? 1920Saat und Ernte - Die deutsche Lyrik um 1925, in Selbstauswahlen der Dichter und Dichterinnen, mit kurzen Eigenbiographien und Angabe ihrer Werke, Ed. Albert Sergel, Berlin/Vienna 1924