Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
H. H.: Harry Haller is a stand-in for the author, Hermann Hesse, who had his own spiritual crisis and wrote about it in the novel. (Source)
Hesse wasn't only an expert with the pen; he was also an accomplished painter. Check out his watercolors here. (Source)
As learned as he was, Hesse didn't go to college. He worked in a bookshop and taught himself by reading the greats there. (Source)
Hesse's interest in Eastern philosophy might have come from his parents, who both had been missionaries in India. (Source)