Wartime Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke

Rilke, Rainer Maria

ISBN 10: 0393001601 / ISBN 13: 9780393001600

Published by W. W. Norton & Company (edition First Edition), 1964

About this Item

The item might be beaten up but readable. May contain markings or highlighting, as well as stains, bent corners, or any other major defect, but the text is not obscured in any way.

Seller Inventory # 0393001601-7-1-13

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Wartime Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (edition First Edition)
• Publication Date: 1964
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393001601
• ISBN 13: 9780393001600
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Fair

About this title

Synopsis

The letters Rilke wrote during the war and postwar years are of particular interest not only for whatever they may contain of the wisdom of the poet, the artist, and the humanitarian, but for their analysis of the intellectual and spiritual currents of the time.

These letters give the account of Rilke's own state of mind and of his final approach to the threshold of his great works. They show the rapid change he underwent after his reaction to the first excitement of the war; how his dismay at the cruelty and confusion of war helped to render the poet in him speechless for many years; how he nevertheless characteristically held to his own fundamental views throughout war and revolution and in spite of everything retained his belief in the capacity of humanity to create for itself a better future.

About the Authors

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926), the author of Sonnets to Orpheus, Duino Elegies, and Letters to a Young Poet, was one of the greatest poets of the German language.

M.D.H. Norton (1894–1985) was cofounder of W. W. Norton & Company, now the oldest and largest publisher owned wholly by its employees.