Stefan Zweig is the most successful writer of the first half of the twentieth century: many of the works he published were sold in large quantities. Born in Vienna, then capital of the multinational Austro-Hungarian Empire, he defined himself as a European. He often traveled to various European countries and also to North and South America, to the East, and in many countries he made friends with intellectuals with whom he corresponded abundantly. Zweig is a fascinating man, with a mysterious personality, successful because of his fine psychological descriptions. Although he himself did not publicly express an opinion about Esperanto, the ideology he presented especially in his lecture on "Spiritual Unity of the World" is very close to the inner idea of the initiator of the International Language.

He was born in 1881 and grew up in a bourgeois family in Vienna. Throughout his life he lived in comfortable conditions, supported by the family in his youth and later earning a lot thanks to the successful sale of his works. He became popular especially for his short stories. He also wrote many biographies, some plays which were very successful. He corresponded abundantly with several dignitaries from various countries such as Romain Rolland, Sigmund Freud, Maxim Gorky. When the Nazis seized power in Germany, all his books were burned and banned. In 1934 Zweig went into exile from Austria due to pressure from the Nazis, first to England, then to the United States and finally to Brazil.

His last notable works, his spiritual legacy, are the autobiography "The World of Yesterday", the "Chess Novel" and his lectures on "The Spiritual Unity of the World" which he gave in Brazil and Argentina. Suffering from depression, hopeless because of the world situation, he committed suicide in 1942, leaving a farewell letter that explains his decision. His second wife Lotte also committed suicide with him on the same day.