Rainer Maria Rilke

Rainer Maria Rilke (4 December, 1875 – 29 December, 1926) is generally considered the German language's greatest 20th century poet. Though he never found a consistent verse form, his haunting images tend to focus on the problems of Christianity in an age of disbelief, solitude, and profound anxiety. He is generally placed in the camp of Modernist poets, though his religious dilemmas may set him apart from some of his peers.

Selection of works

Complete works

• Rainer Maria Rilke, Sämtliche Werke in 12 Bänden (Complete Works in 12 Volumes), published by Rilke Archive in association with Ruth Sieber-Rilke, supplied by Ernst Zinn. Frankfurt am Main. 1976.
• Rainer Maria Rilke, Werke (Works). Edition in four volumes with commentary and supplementary volume, published by Manfred Engel, Ulrich Fülleborn, Dorothea Lauterbach, Horst Nalewski and August Stahl. Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig 1996 and 2003.

Volumes of poetry

• Leben und Lieder (1894)
• Larenopfer (1895)
• Traumgekrönt (1897)
• Advent (1898)
• Mir zur Feier (1909)
• Das Stunden-Buch
• Das Buch vom mönchischen Leben (1899)
• Das Buch von der Pilgerschaft (1901)
• Das Buch von der Armut und vom Tode (1903)
• Das Buch der Bilder (4 Teile, 1902-1906)
• Neue Gedichte (1907)
• Der neuen Gedichte anderer Teil (1908)
• Requiem (1908)
• Das Marien-Leben (1912)
• Duineser Elegien (1912/1922)
• Die Sonette an Orpheus (1922)
• Vergers (1926)
• Les Quatrains Valaisans (1926)
• Les Roses (1927)
• Les Fenêtres (1927)

Prose

• Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge (Novel, 1910)

Letters

• Substantial correspondence. The most important collections are:
• Gesammelte Briefe in sechs Bänden (Collected Letters in Six Volumes), published by Ruth Sieber-Rilke and Carl Sieber. Leipzig 1936-1939.
• Briefe (Letters), published by the Rilke Archive in Weimar. Two volumes, Wiesbaden 1950 (Reprinted 1987 in single volume).
• Briefe in zwei Bänden (Letters in two volumes), published by Horst Nalewski. Frankfurt and Leipzig 1991.

Translations

• Selections:
• Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke, ed. and trans. Robert Bly, New York 1981.
• The Essential Rilke, ed. and trans. Galway Kinnell and Hannah Liebmann, Hopewell, NJ 1999.
• Pictures of God: Rilke's Religious Poetry, ed. and trans. Annemarie S. Kidder, Livonia, MI 2005.
• Individual Works:
• The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, trans. Stephen Mitchell, New York 1983.
• The Book of Hours: Prayers to a Lowly God, trans. Annemarie S. Kidder, Evanston, 2001.

Books on Rilke

• Biography:
• Ralph Freedman, Life of a Poet: Rainer Maria Rilke, New York 1996.
• Studies:
• A Companion to the Works of Rainer Maria Rilke, ed. Erika A and Michael M. Metzger, Rochester 2001.
• Rilke Handbuch. Leben - Werk - Wirkung, ed. Manfred Engel and Dorothea Lauterbach, Stuttgart and Weimar 2004.