Biography

Michael Andreas Helmut Ende was born on Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a small town in Bavaria (Germany), in November 12th 1929. He was the only son of Edgar and Luisä Ende. His father was a surrealist painter whose work was banned by the nazi regime. His early influence would be highly important in his son's future books.

Michael attended school at Waldorf, but quit when he was drafted by the German Army in 1945. He ran away of war and worked as a messenger for Bavarian Free Front, an anti-nazi organization. When war was over, he became interested in theatre and managed to enter the Otto Falckenberg Drama School in Munich. He eventually worked as an actor and director and began to write some radio and stage plays.

In 1960 he could finally publish his first novel oriented to children, Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver, which gave him enough money to stabilize. The book won the Hans Christian Andersen Award that year and had a great popular acclaim —both TV and radio series on Jim were made—, though some critics would always accuse him of being 'escapist' — writing fantasy in a context where everything in the literary world had to be realistic and deal with post-war issues. These people wouldn't understand the strong social undertones related to the 'real world' that Ende always included in his writing.

In 1964 he married Ingeborg Hoffman. Momo was published in 1972. This novel will have two film adaptations, one in 1986 with real actors and the animated version in 2001. In 1979 Ende finished The Neverending Story, which had such a big success that made him stand on the writers' spotlight for months. Many interviews and awards came and Ende, who was shy and didn't like getting so much attention at all, suffered for both physical and psychological trauma. From then on he tried to avoid interviews and public appearances.

In 1984 The Neverending Story movie was released. Ende was very unpleased with the results and asked his name to be removed from the credits, because he considered the film too different of the original novel. He sued the producers but lost.

Ende's wife died due to lung cancer in 1985. In 1989 he married Mariko Sato, who was Japanese and had previously introduced him to kabuki and no (Japanese theatre). In 1993 he began to show signs of possible stomach cancer and a year after this ended up to be true. He eventually died of this disease in Stuttgart, August 29th 1995, at age 65, to much recognition and sorrow.

Works

This is a list of Ende's most remarkable titles. Sadly, not all of them are currently avaliable in English, but the most famous are. The date refers to the year of the first publication in Germany.

Ende wrote many tales for children, adult-oriented storybooks (Mirror in the Mirror, The Prison of Liberty), essays, play and radio scripts and well-known fantasy classics such as Momo, Jim Button or The Neverending Story. Most of them have radio, stage and opera adaptations. Some even have TV series, videogames and movies based on them (Momo and TNS).

Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivfuehrer (1960)
English title: Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver (1963)

Jim Knopf und die Wilde Dreizehn (1962)
English title: Jim Button and the Wild 13

Momo (1973)
English title: Momo / The Gray Gentlemen (1974)

Die Unendliche Geschichte (1979)
English title: The Neverending Story

Das Gauklermaerchen (1982)
English title: Juggler's Tale

Der Spiegel im Spiegel (1983)
English title: Mirror in the Mirror (1986)

Der satanarchaeoluegenialkohoellische Wunschpunsch (1989)
English title: The Night of Wishes / The Satanarchaellidealcohellish Notion Potion (1992)

Das Gefaengnis der Freiheit (1992)
English title: The Prison of Liberty

Die Vollmondlegende (1993)
English title: The Full Moon Legend

Michael Endes Zettelkasten. Skizzen und Notizen (1994)
Possible English title: Michael Ende. Sketches and Notes

Mammonella oder Der Geist in der Flasche (unfinished)
Possible English title: Mammonella or The Spirit in the Bottle

Also: The Dream-Eater (1978); Ophelia's Shadow Theatre (1988); The Haunting of the Snark (1988, Lewis Carroll study); The Long Way to Santa Cruz (1991); Lena's Secret (1991); Teddy and the Animals (1993).

Thanks to Elenis for the information above!