Born in Bulgaria into a Sephardic Jewish family, Elias Canetti was educated in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Vienna (1929) and, since 1938, has been a resident of England. Canetti became known first for his novel Auto-da-Fe (1938) and for his plays. More recently a good many of his essays have been translated. A dominant theme in his work is the conflict between the attempt at individual self-definition and the autonomous life and driving force of the masses. Canetti has been awarded the Vienna Prize (1966), the Critics Prize (Germany 1967), the Great Austrian State Prize (1967), the Buchner Prize (1972), the Sachs Prize (1975), the Hebbel Prize… (1980), and the Nobel Prize for Literature (1981).