At the time of his 1939 suicide, the German antifascist dramatist Ernst Toller was a global celebrity. After leading Bavaria’s failed revolution in 1919, the plays and poems that he wrote in prison were translated into more than a dozen languages. Toller’s fame reached new levels after Hitler seized power in 1933, and his opposition to the Nazis led to the burning of his books in Germany. Yet the writer’s brave face of resistance in exile hid a bevy of personal and professional crises.

Richard Byrne’s investigation of Toller’s mysterious death mask – made in the hours after his suicide at the Hotel Mayflower near Central Park in 1939 – led him to blow the dust off evidence contained in long-neglected archives. He found a cascade of shocking new details, provocative connections, and hidden secrets: abandoned ashes, fractious leftist politics in Manhattan, Hollywood gossip, a lost New York artist, comic book wars, and the identity of the author’s long hidden lover in his last days.

Richard Byrne is a dramatist and journalist. He was the editor of The Wilson Quarterly from 2019 to 2021. His work has appeared in The New Republic, The Nation, The Guardian, Time, BookForum, and Zona Motel. He also has written liner notes for releases by R.E.M. and Uncle Tupelo.

His work as a dramatist includes two musicals: Nero/Pseudo – written with Jon Langford (Mekons) and Jim Elkington (Tweedy) – and Congressman Davy with Dean Schlabowske (Waco Brothers). His play, Hotel Mayflower, was published in a bilingual edition (English/German) by Moloko Print. He also wrote the screenplay for the 2024 Pandora Machine film, The Drowned Girl.