Courtesy of Wikipedia
Felix Salten (September 6, 1869 – October 8, 1945) was an Austrian author and literary critic. His most famous work is Bambi, a Life in the Woods, which was adapted into an animated feature film, Bambi, by Walt Disney Productions in 1942.
Salten was born Siegmund Salzmann on 6 September 1869 in Pest, Austria-Hungary. His father was Fülöp Salzmann, the telegraph office’s clerk in Pest; his mother was Maria Singer. He was the grandson of an Orthodox rabbi. When he was four weeks old, his family relocated to Vienna, as many Jews did after the Imperial government had granted full citizenship rights to Jews in 1867.
As a teen, Felix changed his name to Salten in order to appear less Jewish, and considered converting to Catholicism due to the antisemitism he experienced from his Austrian neighbors and schoolmates. When his father went bankrupt, the sixteen-year-old Salten quit school and began working for an insurance agency.
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