Max Frisch, 1911-1991, writer. Published his first novel in 1934, but then temporarily gave up his literary ambitions and studied architecture in Zurich. He visited America and Mexico in 1951 thanks to a Rockefeller Foundation scholarship, traveled again to the US, Mexico and Cuba in 1956 and to the US in 1970. In 1981 he bought a loft in New York, returned to Zurich in 1984. His wrote both novels and plays, and is regarded as one of Switzerland's major 20th century writers. His best known play is probably "The Firebugs" (1953); his novels include "I'm not Stiller" (1954), whose central character is a Swiss who has fled to the US to take up a non-Swiss identity.

Mari Sandoz, 1896 - 1966