Chant de l?amour et de la mort du cornette Christoph Rilke

Translated into French from the original Austrian-German by Maurice Betz, thus a First Edition Thus. Translated into English, "The Love and Death of Cornet Christopher Rilke," being worked-up prose poem written by Rainer Maria Rilke in 1899 and then seven years later revised. The back-story is that Rilke found documents in an uncle's loft regarding an alleged ancestor of the family, Christoph Rilke, but who had "died as a cornet in the baron of Pirovano's company of the Imperial Austrian Heyster Regiment of Horse" (Wikipedia entry about Christoph Rilke). The ill-fated soldier spends a night with his lover in her castle, leaves her, and then fights and dies in the war. Published here in 1940. Bound in rainbow print paper quite lovely, with chipping to spine head and foot, cracking to front joint but hinge still holding firm. Measures 7 3/4" x 5 1/2" tall and wide. Printed in black font but with red initials and lovely florets at bottom of each page. Dedication reads "A mes compagnons d'armes Le Capitaine Coulpier le Lieutenant Ritter et Le Brigadier de Tir Charnox en souvenir de notre cagna des bois et d enos premieres nuits de tir Front de la Sarre Octobre 1939 M.B.," translated as "To my comrades-in-arms, Captain Coulpier, Lieutenant Ritter and Brigadier de Tir Charnox in memory of our woodland shooting and our first nights of shooting Sarre Front October 1939 M.B." Colophon reads "J'ai acheve d'im primer ce livre que j'ai decore de vignettes en 1940 le jour des rois dans mon atelier a paris," translated as "I finished printing this book which I decorated with vignettes in 1940 on Twelfth Day in my workshop in Paris." The author, René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 ? 29 December 1926), "was an Austrian poet and novelist. Acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, he is widely recognized as a significant writer in the German language . . . viewed by critics and scholars as possessing undertones of mysticism, exploring themes of subjective experience and disbelief" (Wikipedia). From the library of Gershon Legman, as transmitted from his widow, the fabulous Judith Legman.Member, I.O.B.A., C.B.A., and adherent to the highest ethical standards. Additional postage may be required for oversize or especially heavy volumes, and for sets.…