Peter Bichsel

Writer, born in Lucerne, C Switzerland. He wrote mainly satirical stories depicting the everyday life of the petty bourgeoisie, and became known with Eigentlich möchte Frau Blum den Milchmann kennenlernen (1964). Later works include Kindergeschichten (1969), Der Busant (1985), Irgendwo anderswo (1986), and the collected essays Im Gegenteil. Kolumnen 1986–1990 (1990) and Gegen unseren Briefträger. Kolumnen 1990–1994 (1995).

Peter Bichsel (born March 24, 1935) is a popular Swiss-German writer and journalist representing modern German literature.

Bichsel was born 1935 in Luzern, Switzerland the son of craftsmen, manual laborers. Shortly after he was born, the Bichsels moved to Olten, also in Switzerland. To this day, Peter Bichsel considers himself from Olten.

One of his first and most well known works is And Really Frau Blum Would Very Much Like to Meet the Milkman (translated from the German by Michael Hamburger in 1968). For the most part, Bichsel's works for younger readers concern children's stubborn desire to take words literally and wreak havoc on the world of communicated ideas. In the early 1970s and 1980s, Bichsel's journalistic work pushed his literary work to a large extent into the background. Only Der Busant (1985) and Warten in Baden-Baden appeared again to have the Bichsel style that was so familiar to German readers. Peter Bichsel gave up being a professional teacher early in his lifetime, yet he has continued to teach his readers that the drudgery and banality of life is of our own making. This theme has helped make Peter Bichsel a symbol of German literary work today.