Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Mann Randolph, Sr., August 11, 1787, with incomplete Copy

German author Thomas Mann (1875–1955) was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929. He achieved worldwide popularity with works such as Buddenbrooks, Death in Venice, and The Magic Mountain. His 1930 novella Mario and the Magician used allegory to expose the dangers of dictatorship. In 1933 only his political writings were blacklisted and burned, but after Mann declared solidarity with other exiled writers, the Nazis stripped him of his citizenship and rescinded his academic honors. Mann went into exile in 1933 and emigrated to the United States in 1939. In his frequent wartime radio addresses, Mann repeatedly recalled the book burnings and had himself introduced, both in broadcasts on US networks and in speeches intended for Germany, as a writer "whose books had been burned." Mann returned to Europe in 1952 and settled in Switzerland, where he died in 1955.