One of the great writers of German modernism, Arno Schmidt (1914-1979) published a number of fictions characterized by their complexity of subject, language, and typography.

Radio Dialogs I and Radio Dialogs II represent some of the "conversations" Schmidt performed on German radio, challenging listeners to reexamine the literary canon, from German authors like Barthold Heinrich Brockes, Christoph Martin Wieland, Ludwig Tieck, and Karl May, to the English Brontë sisters and the Irish James Joyce.

John E. Woods translated Schmidt's 1,500-page masterwork, Bottom's Dream, as well as The School for Atheists (Green Integer), Evening Edged in Gold, The Egghead Republic, Collected Novellas, Nobodaddy's Children, Collected Stories, and Two Novels (The Stony Heart and Boondocks/Moondocks). His other translations include the major novels of Thomas Mann.