THE SWISS POET, NOVELIST, ESSAYIST, and dramatist Kuno Raeber was the first guest author to come to Oberlin. His title was Max Kade Visiting Lecturer in German and in that capacity he joined the regular faculty in teaching German language and literature courses. During this first year of the program, the position and obligations of the guest author were not yet clearly defined. Kuno Raeber was instrumental in further shaping the program, which, beginning in the second year, took on the form it was to have more or less up to the present. This meant that the guest author's tasks entailed teaching a seminar that focused on his or her own work and giving a reading or lecture at the end of his or her stay. The second year also saw the publication of the first accompanying brochure, which provided information on the author's life and work. Since no such brochure exists for Kuno Raeber, we, the editors, provide a brief biographical sketch.

Kuno Raeber was born in 1922 in Klingnau (Aargau) and grew up in Lucerne. He studied history, literature, and philosophy in Basel, Zurich, Geneva, and Paris, receiving a Ph.D. in history in 1950. In 1958 Raeber moved to Munich, where he spent most of his life. He left Munich to initiate Oberlin's Writer-in-Residence program in 1967/68, and again in 1977/78, when he lived in Rome as a member of the Swiss Institute there.

He was awarded the following prizes: the Ehrengabe der Bayerischen Akademie der Schönen Künste (1968); the Turkanpreis der Stadt München (1973); the Luzerner Literaturpreis (1979); the Preis der Schweizerischen Schillerstiftung (1989); and the Kunstpreis der Stadt Luzern (1991).

Kuno Raeber died in 1992 in Basel after a serious illness. He is considered by many as “der große Unbekannte.” However, the new fivevolume edition of his works by Matthias Klein and Christiane Wyrwa serves as proof that Kuno Raeber belongs to the significant authors of the second half of the twentieth century.

While at Oberlin, Raeber was at work on Mißverständnisse. 33 Kapitel, a volume of short prose, which he completed and published later that same year. At the end of his stay, he gave the unfinished manuscript, which then comprised sixteen of the thirty-three chapters, to Peter Spycher and his wife Colette as a farewell gift.