Frisch, Max, 1911–91, Swiss writer. He obtained a diploma in architecture in 1941, and his designs included the Zürich Recreation Park. After 1955 he became recognized as one of Europe's major literary voices. In the novels Stiller (1954, tr. I'm Not Stiller, 1958), Homo faber (1957, tr. 1959), and Mein Name sei Gantenbein (1964, tr. A Wilderness of Mirrors, 1965), Frisch was essentially concerned with the human search for personal identity. His best-known plays are Biedermann und die Brandstifter (1953, tr. The Firebugs, 1963), and Andorra (1961, tr. 1962), a study of mass psychology.
See his autobiographical Montauk (1975; tr. 1976, repr. 2016), his Sketchbook 1946–1949 (1965; tr. 1977), Sketchbook 1966–1971 (1972; tr. 1974), and Drafts for a Third Sketchbook (2010, ed. by P. von Matt; tr. 2013); biographies by U. W. Weisstein (1967) and C. Petersen (tr. 1972); studies by M. Butler (1983) and W. Koepke (1990).
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