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  • Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke book cover
  • Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke book cover
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Letters to a Young Poet

by Rainer Maria Rilke

Letters on art, solitude, and the questions around advice

$16.48 USD
$27.47 USD $16.48 USD
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Hardcover New English

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AlbakiReads Editorial

Letters on art, solitude, and the questions around advice

Written to a young officer cadet at the beginning of the twentieth century, Rilke’s letters range from the practical question of writing to love, sex, suffering, and the limits of advice. Their epistolary form keeps these subjects connected to an exchange with a particular correspondent, while the book’s additional piece, “The Letter from the Young Worker,” extends the collection beyond the letters. Lewis Hyde’s introduction places the correspondence in context and considers Rilke’s understanding of isolation as a creative force. Together, the contents offer a view of artistic life through reflections on both making work and living with the questions that surround it.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Writers and artists interested in reflections on creative life.
  • Readers drawn to literary correspondence and early twentieth-century writing.
  • Those interested in reflections on solitude, love, and suffering.

Themes

Artistic practiceSolitude and creativityLove and sufferingAdvice and its limits

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

Rilke's powerfully touching letters to an aspiring young poet, now available in a beautiful hardcover Penguin edition

 

At the start of the twentieth century, Rainer Maria Rilke wrote a series of letters to a young officer cadet, advising him on writing, love, sex, suffering, and the nature of advice itself. These profound and lyrical letters have since become hugely influential for generations of writers and artists of all kinds, including Lady Gaga and Patti Smith. With honesty, elegance, and a deep understanding of the loneliness that often comes with being an artist, Rilke's letters are an endless source of inspiration and comfort. Lewis Hyde's new introduction explores the context in which these letters were written and how the author embraced his isolation as a creative force.

 

This edition also includes Rilke's later work The Letter from the Young Worker.

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