Max Frisch
"I'm Not Stiller" started with a print-run that provided for sales of 3,000 in its first year, but thanks to strong and growing reader demand it later became the first book published by Suhrkamp to top one million copies. The next novel, "Homo Faber", was another best seller, with four million copies of the German language version produced by 1998. "The Fire Raisers" and "Andorra" are the most successful German language plays of all time, with respectively 250 and 230 productions up till 1996, according to an estimate made by the literary critic Volker Hage. The two plays, along with "Homo Faber" became curriculum favourites with schools in the German-speaking middle European countries. Apart from a few early works, most of Frisch's books and plays have been translated into around ten languages, while the most translated of all, "Homo Faber", has been translated into twenty-five languages.
René-Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt
From 1820, his successes continued, albeit with around a hundred performances for each play: "Le Drapeau blanc" ("The White Flag", 1821), "Ali Baba ou les Quarante voleurs" ("Ali Baba, or the Forty Thieves", 1822), "Le Moulin des Étangs" ("The Mill", 1826), and "La Tête de mort ou les Ruines de Pompéi" ("The Death's-Head, or the Ruins of Pompeii", 1827). Some plays were written in collaboration, like "La Muette de la forêt" ("The Mute Girl of the Forest", 1828). His last play before retiring as director of the Opéra-Comique in 1827 would be "Latude ou Trente-cinq ans de captivité" ("Latude, or 35 Years of Captivity"), written with his young disciple Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois. For nearly forty years, he maintained his energetic activities as author, theatre director and government inspector. His immense success as a dramatic author led to him being dubbed the "Corneille des Boulevards". Paul Lacroix recalled that Charles Nodier placed him in the first rank of authors of his generation. His reputation was almost as high in Russia, Germany, and England. His wealth allowed him to add many rare books to his library, the great passion of his life. A distich inscribed above the door read: "Tel est le triste sort de tout livre prêté: Souvent il est perdu, toujours il est gâté." ("Such is the sad fate of every lent book: Often it is lost, always it is marred.") And inside each of his books, a slip of paper read: "Un livre est un ami qui ne change jamais." ("A book is a friend who never changes.")