Sculpture complete, Hermann lives, it's alive it's alive

After about 48 hours of accumulated work over several months, Herman Hesse is finished and ready fro the kiln.  That's Hermann on the left.  The skull behind us, ominous huh?
Hermann Hesse is one of my favorite authors, and perhaps the most famous German writers of the last 100 years.  1877 to 1962, born in Germany. During WWI he was assigned to guard and transport POW's, meeting these men in this situation changed his life.  During this he published essays that caused plenty of trouble and gained him the label pacifist.  Before WWII he married a Jewish women, moved to Switzerland where they lived until his death. He won a Nobel prize.  His best known works include: Steppenwolf and Sidhartha my two favorites, If The War Goes On, The Glass Bead Game, Journey To The East, Demian.  His writing can be summed up as a "search for self" and "journey of discovery", he traveled often to India and Indonesia, some of his work is infused with this eastern flavor of life's meaning and passage of time as a component of the whole of our lives.  You can imagine his work was of keen interest to the countercultures of the beat generation, and the hippies from the flower power to the peace movements. His peak of popularity was late 50's to late 70's. If you have never experienced Hermann Hesse, do the first two listed, Sidhartha might be the smoothest glide of the two.
This sculpture depicts him in what I think could be his 40's to late 50's, most sculptures and pictures show him as elderly.