When Hermann Kesten left Berlin hastily in March 1933 and went into exile in France, he had already published four novels, a book of short stories and seven plays. He belonged to a generation of younger writers who had a significant influence on the literature of the Weimar Republic from the late 1920s. An editor for the up-and-coming publisher Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag in Berlin, Kesten also contributed to Weimar literature as a mediator.

He continued his work as an editor and writer in exile. He took over editing in the German-language department of the Amsterdam publisher Allert de Lange and published regularly in almost all relevant exile journals, such as das Neue Tagebuch, the Pariser Tageszeitung and die Sammlung. He also published in the organs of the Communist exile press, towards which, as a moralist and enemy of all forms of totalitarianism and ideology, he had a highly cautious attitude. Kesten, despite his occasional abrasiveness, became a linchpin of the German emigrant literary scene, respected by many different groups. He lived mostly in hotels in Paris and Amsterdam, but also stayed for extended periods in Brussels, Ostend, Nice, Sanary-sur-Mer and Trouville.

Shortly before the outbreak of war in Western Europe, in the spring of 1940 Kesten decided to travel with a visitor visa to the United States. The German invasion of the Benelux countries at this time caught him by surprise. In New York he was involved in the establishment of the Emergency Rescue Committee, for which he worked for two years as a volunteer advisor. Kesten published six novels in exile and edited several anthologies, among which was Heart of Europe, which he worked on together with Klaus Mann.

He returned to Europe shortly after his naturalization in the United States in 1949. As a journalist, author and critic, he was a major figure in German post-war literature. From 1972 to 1976 he was president of the West German PEN club. He continued however to live outside of Germany, mainly in Rome and Basel. 

Selected works:
Josef sucht die Freiheit (novel, 1928)
Ferdinand und Isabella (novel, 1935)
Die Kinder von Gernika (novel, 1939)
Die Zwillinge von Nürnberg (novel, 1946/1947)
Meine Freunde die Poeten (1953)

Further reading:
Fähnders, Walter / Weber, Hendrik (Hrsg.): Dichter – Literat – Emigrant. Über Hermann Kesten. Bielefeld: Aisthesis Verlag 2005
Kesten, Hermann (Hrsg.): Deutsche Literatur im Exil. Briefe europäischer Autoren 1933–1949. Wien München Basel: Verlag Kurt Desch 1964
Schoenberner, Franz / Kesten, Hermann: Briefwechsel im Exil 1933–1945. Herausgegeben von Frank Berninger. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag 2008