From the Introduction

1 have not only occasionally made a confession of belief in essays, but once, a little more than ten years ago, attempted to set forth my belief in a book. This book is called Siddhartha.
—Hermann Hesse, "My Belief," 1931

When New Directions decided to publish the first English translation of Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha in 1951, it could not have foreseen the enormous impact it would have on American culture. The novel's ostensibly simple narrative—the story of a young, accomplished brahmin, Siddhartha, who defies his father's tradition in favor of wandering India in search of enlightenment—appealed to the restless drifter, the alienated youth, and the political anarchist alike. Its many motifs include the outcast from society, rejection of authority, communion with nature, recalcitrance toward schooling, and the idea of an immanent God. Published in the United States during the Cold War, Siddhartha addressed a perennial unrest and provided a new set of values for a generation of young people disenchanted with their parents' conservatism.

By Hesse's own admission, Siddhartha is a Western tale cloaked in "Indian garb." The author had chosen India as his backdrop since he was unable to address the concept of an all-pervading unity within the context of his own European Protestant heritage. But Hesse's portrayal of India is based less on his own travels to the subcontinent and more on an imagined notion of "the Orient" so prevalent in Europe during the time of the novel's composition. Like the Romantics and Transcendentalists who had preceded him, Hesse was not interested in accurately conveying the traditions that inspired him. (Hesse's use of the invented term Yogaveda, for example, is evidence of his loose rendering of Hinduism.) Instead, he created his own exotic blend of Eastern spirituality that was a synthesis of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism, combined with his burgeoning knowledge of Western psychoanalysis. All this was punctuated with a staunch nonconformity that resonated with readers across both generations and cultures.

Despite Hesse's eclectic interest in the world's religions, no other spiritual discipline—apart from Christianity—permeated his life and work more than Buddhism. Many of his novels were infused with its compassionate foundation, while his characters became centered through developing an awareness of themselves and their own behavior with a kind of mindfulness that transcended the intellectual content of Buddhist philosophy. The author was struck by the Buddha's "life as lived, as labor accomplished and action carried out. A training, a spiritual self-training of the highest order." It is this discipline that we see reflected in Hesse's writing and in his own psychological struggle.

His most influential work, Siddhartha is arguably also his most optimistic. The novel offered its readers hope for liberation in this lifetime, a hope that was absent from both the German and the American youth movements that had surfaced in the wake of two world wars. There could not have been a more encouraging message available to those who sought the "Way Within." As a result, America witnessed a Hesse phenomenon that was unparalleled for a European writer. And yet, despite its seemingly preordained success in America, the odds seemed stacked against the novel ever being finished in the first place. It was only through a series of transformative experiences, wherein the author reinvented himself, that Siddhartha was born. Indeed, the novel had a journey all its own prior to its arrival on American soil; the author's process of self-realization was inextricably tied to the composition of the novel itself.