bio notes:
born: 6/6/1875
died: 8/12/1955
born as: Thomas Mann
nationality: Germany

German novelist and essayist whose early novels earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929. He is noted for his finely wrought style enriched by humor, irony, and parody and for his subtle and many-layered narratives. - Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature