Leo Perutz

Leo Perutz was born in 1882 in Prague

Perutz was born in Prague to a largely secular Jewish family. He was the eldest son of Benediktus Perutz, a textile manufacturer, and his wife Emilie. The family moved to Vienna in 1901.

He was a weak student and left high school in Vienna in 1902 without finishing. From 1906 he studied probability, statistics, mathematics and political economy at the polytechnic in Vienna.

He worked as an actuary in Trieste from 1907 and for the Anker insurance company in Vienna from 1908 to 1923. He developed the Perutz equalization formula. In World War I he was wounded on the eastern front, and in 1915 he published his first novel, The Third Bullet.

He wrote 11 novels, usually short historical stories with a metaphysical twist, including The Marquis of Bolibar and The Master of the Day of Judgment. He married Ida Weil in 1918, and they had 3 children before her death in 1928. He married Grete Humburger in 1935.

After the Anschluss he sailed to Haifa in 1938 and settled in Tel Aviv, where he lived in relative obscurity. He regained Austrian citizenship in 1951 and divided his time between Austria and Israel. He died in Bad Ischl in 1957.