Annemarie Schwarzenbach, born on 23 May 1908 in Zurich, came from an influential Swiss industrialist family. Even during her academic career, she published literary works and journalistic texts. In the 1930s, she took a clear stance against National Socialism, cultivated close friendships with exiles such as Klaus and Erika Mann and supported anti-fascist projects such as the exile magazine Die Sammlung. As a much-travelled journalist and photographer, she explored Spain, Persia and the Soviet Union from 1933 to 1934. In 1935, Annemarie Schwarzenbach travelled to Persia again and married the French diplomat Claude-Achille Clarac, who was also homosexual, despite her lesbian orientation. Morphine addiction and depression overshadowed her creative phases; nevertheless, she produced works such as The Happy Valley (1940) and Reportages from Afghanistan, which she wrote together with Ella Maillart on an adventurous road trip in 1939. After turbulent years in the USA, characterised by failed attempts at rehab and her encounter with Carson McCullers, she returned to Switzerland in 1942. A bicycle accident in the Engadine on 7 September 1942 resulted in a serious head injury, which led to her death on 15 November 1942 due to a medical misjudgement.