Rainer Maria Rilke

E. M. Butler

Published by Cambridge at the University Press, Cambridge, 1946

About this Item

Second printing, 1946. First printing was in 1941. 'Second Impression' stated on the dust jacket. Frontispiece drawing by Kolo Mosen. If your priority is a book and dust jacket that are both in very good condition you have it here. The book came from the estate of the renowned sociologist Daniel Bell. It was either owned by him or his wife, the writer, literary critic, and one-time lover of Dylan Thomas, Pearl Kazin. Neither, though, wrote their name in the book. The blue covers are exceptionally clean. I don't see any soiling at all. The silver lettering on the spine is nicely bright. The cover edges and corners are in excellent shape, no rubbing. The page edges are free of soiling. The book is square and the spine is straight. The binding is very solid with nicely tight pages throughout. The covers are nicely tight as well. The pages are exceptionally clean. I'm not seeing any soiling at all. They are lightly, but uniformly, toned. I'm not finding any instances of conspicuous creasing, no placeholder creases, no turned-down corner creases. There are no markings in the book. No attachments of any kind. And no one has written their name or anything else anywhere. You can see the dust jacket in the first few photos. It is in surprisingly very good condition, surprising because of its age. I don't see any soiling. The color on the spine is only very slightly lighter than the front and rear. I don't see any or losses. The front has a very thin horizontal crease just below its top edge. There is a neat clip off the bottom corner of the front flap where the price would have been. Both flaps are exceptionally clean, no soiling. Also no tears. I have had the jacket in a fitted protective cover for all the time I have owned it. From the dust jacket: ' 'Rilke remains baffling', Professor Butler writes, 'partly because he lived in an age which did not think poetically, but partly also because he willed it so, wrapping himself in a cloak of darkness woven from esoteric symbols. And we should let him go free had he not spoken so often and so urgently of his message and mission to humanity.' The book therefore takes into account his whole life, making much use of his letters as well as his writings for publication. It is a remarkably penetrating study, in which the author seems to be both drawn to the man and repelled by him. If he suffers under her analysis it is because she is confident that nothing less than the truth will justify him; thus, although this book seeks to replace a legend, 'the mistake would be gross indeed if in exploding a legend one should overlook a miracle.' The book tells an odd story of the penalty of genius. It has a powerful hold as the history of a very remarkable man, as well as all the value of acute criticism. '.

Seller Inventory # 005818

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Rainer Maria Rilke
• Publisher: Cambridge at the University Press, Cambridge
• Publication Date: 1946
• Language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Literary Criticism
  • Biography
  • Poetry