Letters to a young poet : with the letters from the "young poet" / Rainer Maria Rilke, Franz Xaver Kappus ; translated and with an introduction and afterword by Damion Searls.
Publisher:
Liveright Publishing Corporationa division of W. W. Norton & Company,
Originally published in German as Briefe an einen jungen Dichter: Mit den Briefen von Franz Xaver Kappus. Includes bibliographical references.
Contents:
Introduction -- Letters to a young poet -- On the lost letter -- Kappus's letters to Rilke -- Kappus's introduction to Letters to a young poet, 1929 -- Afterword: the lives of two poets.
Summary:
"Nearly a century after the publication of Rilke's inspirational work, the missing letters of the young poet himself finally appear in this canonical edition. For more than ninety years, eager writers and young poets, even those simply looking for a purpose in life, have embraced the wisdom of Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, first published in 1929. Most readers and scholars assumed that the letters from young poet were forever lost to posterity. Yet, shockingly, the letters were recently discovered by Erich Unglaub, a Rilke scholar, and published in German in 2019. The acclaimed translator Damion Searls has now not only retranslated Rilke's original letters but also translated the letters by Franz Xaver Kappus, an Austrian military cadet and, yes, aspiring poet. This timeless edition, in addition to joining the two sets of letters together for the first time in English, provides a new window into the workings of Rilke's visionary poetic and philosophical mind, allowing us to reexperience the literary genius of one of the most inspiring works of twentieth-century literature"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.