Robert Walser was born in Biel, Switzerland, in 1878 to a large, poor family. He dreamed of becoming an actor, but had to leave school when his family could no longer bear the cost. In 1892, he began working and served as an apprentice and clerk in a bank. His first poems where published in 1898. In 1903, he became an assistant to an engineer in Zürich, and the theme of serving would characterize his work in the following years. There was a positive response to his writings, and he published numerous short stories in newspapers and magazines. But Walser’s mind was restless. He often changed lodgings and lived a very solitary life, and his style became more and more radical and abstract. In 1929, after a mental breakdown, he admitted himself to a mental home in Bern. But only when he was, against his will, moved to another sanatorium did he quit writing. On December 25, 1956 he was found, having died of a heart attack, in a field of snow near the asylum.