Hofmannsthal, Hugo von [key], 1874–1929, Austrian dramatist and poet. His first verses were published when he was 16 years old, and his play The Death of Titian (1892, tr. 1913) when he was 18. His varied gifts as poet and as dramatist are shown in his librettos for Richard Strauss, including Elektra (1903), Der Rosenkavalier (1911), Ariadne auf Naxos (1912), and Arabella (1933). After World War I, he was one of the founders of the Salzburg Festival, where his plays, such as the tragedy Der Turm (1925), his adaptation of Everyman (1911, tr. 1917), are regularly produced.
See his Selected Writings (3 vol., 1952–63); his correspondence with Strauss (1955, tr. 1961); studies by H. Broch (1984), M. Hamburger (1970), and B. Bennett (1988).
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