About the Author

Rainer Maria Rilke (1975-1926) was born in Prague and traveled throughout Europe, returning frequently to Paris, where he wrote his finest works: the two volumes of New Poems and the great modernist novel The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge. He lived the last years of his life in Switzerland, where he completed his two poetic masterworks, the Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus.

Joel Agee has translated Elias Canetti, Friedrich Dürenmatt, and Gottfried Benn. He won the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize for his work on Heinrich von Kleist's verse play Penthesilea. He is the author of Twelve Years: An American Boyhood in East Germany.

Reviews

"The greatness of Cezanne could be conveyed only by an artist equally great." --Howard Moss, The New Yorker

This small volume of correspondence, written in 1907, reflects Rilke's admiration for the French painter Cezanne, who was a major influence on the poet. ``These profound letters mirror the search of a writer grappling with the most intimate questions of identity and artistic purpose,'' stated PW. (October)

"The greatness of Cezanne could be conveyed only by an artist equally great." --Howard Moss, The New Yorker