Those were the days. When Hess wrote The Glass Bead Game, Mann gave us The Magic Mountain, Camus had The Plague, and Kafka ...

Yet what remain closest to me from my days of enjoying their writings is just an essay by Herman Hess titled "Thou Shalt not Kill". Hess, the man and his times, seems to unravel its depth and mystery here. (And Mann's short story, "A Man and his Dog" has a similar staying power for me)