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Of Jewish ancestry, Natonek fled Germany in 1933 and returned to his native Prague; he later fled to France and, in 1941, was able to emigrate to the U.S. He was living in New York City at the time he wrote to Werfel. Natonek had published several books with Paul Zsolnay, who was Werfel's publisher from 1924 until 1938. Natonek implies in his letter that he and Werfel had encountered each other in Europe.

Born of German-Jewish ancestry in Prague on October 5, 1892, Hanus (Hans) Natonek grew up in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After completion of his university studies in Prague, Vienna and Berlin, Natonek became chief editor of the Neue Leipziger Zeitung in 1917, a post he held until 1933. The author of many novels and short stories, Natonek attained official recognition in 1932 when he received the prestigious Goethe Award from the city of Leipzig for his novel Kinder Einer Stadt. In addition, Natonek was a theater critic and contributor to many magazines and journals. With the advent of the Nazi Regime in 1933, Natonek fled Germany and returned to Prague. There he continued his advocacy of a democratic press. After Czechoslovakia collapsed in 1938, Natonek was compelled to emigrate to France, spending the next few years hiding from the Nazis. In 1941, aided by the Emergency Rescue Committee and the President's Advisory Committee, he reached New York City. Natonek's first two years in America were very difficult. He supported himself by doing menial odd jobs while writing of his experiences in Suche Nach Mir Selbst (In Search of Myself). In 1943 he moved to Tucson, Arizona, where he continued his literary pursuits, contributing stories and poems to newspapers and magazines in the United States and in Europe. In 1949 he married Anne Morgenstern Grunwald, a native of Frankfurt, Germany, who lived with him until his death from leukemia on Oct. 24, 1963.