Gleaned from Rainer Maria Rilke’s voluminous, never-before-translated correspondence, this volume offers the best writings and personal philosophy of one of the twentieth century’s greatest poets. The result is a profound vision of how the human drive to create and understand can guide us in every facet of life. Arranged by theme–from everyday existence with others to the exhilarations of love and the experience of loss, from dealing with adversity to the nature of inspiration–here are Rilke’s thoughts on how to infuse everyday life with beauty, wonder, and meaning.
Intimate, stylistically masterful, brilliantly translated and assembled, and brimming with the passion of Rilke, Letters on Life is a font of wisdom and a perfect book for all occasions.

 Back to top | e-mail or print this page

“Baer’s translations are eloquent, and his splendid Introduction is sensitive, thorough, and illuminating.”
–Burton Pike, professor emeritus of comparative literature at City University of New York


“An indispensable resource.”
–Booklist

 Back to top | e-mail or print this page

RAINER MARIA RILKE (1875—1926) ranks among the great poets of world literature, and was the author of Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus.

ULRICH BAER is the author of Remnants of Song: Trauma and the Experience of Modernity in Charles Baudelaire and Paul Celan, and the editor of 110 Stories: New York Writes After September 11. Baer is associate professor of German and comparative literature at New York University and chair of the German department.

 Back to top | e-mail or print this page