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Title: Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke, M.D. Herter Norton ISBN: 0-393-31039-6 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: August, 2004 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.55 (38 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A must read if you want to be a writer
Comment: Letters to a Young Poet has become a classic since it first appeared back in the 1930's. Most everyone knows what the book is and is about, so I won't bore you with lengthy explanations of such. Simply put - it is a collection of letters from Rilke to a poet that wrote asking Rilke to look at his poems and tell the youth what he thought of them.
Every writer should read the first letter in the book. Every writer. It contains the most poignant statement he makes in all ten letters by far:
"This above all - ask yourself in the stillest hour of the night: must I write? Delve into yourself for a deep answer. And if this should be affirmative, if you may meet this earnest question with a strong and simple 'I must,' then build your life according to this necessity..."
This advice, given to one writer a century ago, is still one of the truest wisdoms all writers must adhere to.
The other nine letters offer some other pearls of wisdom concerning writing and life - also a glimpse into the man that Rilke was. But they do not match the power and depth of that first letter, which I read and re-read every week. Committing it to memory.
Must I write? I must.
Rating: 5
Summary: eternal wisdom should be shared with everyone
Comment: A very good friend gave this book to me as I was struggling to find myself during my early college years. I was instantly amazed at how a book written over ninety years ago could be so precisely helpful to the many questions I was suffering with at the time. Rilke introduced me to the concept of solitude as a blessing. This idea has truly changed my life for the better as I have taken the time to step away from life and look inside for the answers I seek. If I had one gift to give someone I truly cared about, it would be this masterpiece. Although the contents of this book can not be appreciated by everyone, I challenge all to read it and see if it sparks the fire in them that it has brought to me.
Rating: 5
Summary: Stephen Mitchell's translation is the best
Comment: The translation by Mitchell is the most modern and accessible. I recommend this over the rest.
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Title: The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke by Stephen Mitchell, Robert Hass, Maria Rainer Rilke ISBN: 0679722017 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 13 March, 1989 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Rilke on Love and Other Difficulties: Translations and Considerations by Rainer Maria Rilke, John J. L. Mood ISBN: 0393310981 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: August, 2004 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Ahead of All Parting : The Selected Poetry and Prose of Rainer Maria Rilke by Maria Rainer Rilke, Stephen Mitchell ISBN: 0679601619 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 01 August, 1995 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God by Anita Barrows, Joanna R. Macy, Rainer Maria Rilke ISBN: 1573225851 Publisher: Riverhead Books Pub. Date: April, 1997 List Price(USD): $9.00 |
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Title: Stories of God by Rainer Maria Rilke, M. D. Norton ISBN: 0393308820 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: April, 1992 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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