 He became an elementary school teacher and after the war had high hopes for a literary life.However, in 1953, feeling the cynicism of the German Economic Miracle, he emigrated to Canada where, after a stint as a dishwasher, he became a professor in the German Department of the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario in 1954.He wrote six novels, two collections of poetry and four biographies (including one on Van Gogh and another on Grey Owl).