Rilke: A Biography

by Ralph Freedman

Here is the first major biography (by an American) of one of the most fascinating personalities and important poets in 19th- and 20th-century literatures--Rainer Maria Rilke. 16 pages of black-and-white photos.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Ralph Freedman, who grew up in Nazi Germany, emigrated at 19 to England and ultimately the United States. He served in the US Army during World War II, in Tunisia, Sicily and Italy, afterwards graduating from the University of Washington and earning a doctorate at Yale. He taught 12 years at the University of Iowa, 22 at Princeton and for two post-retirement years at Emory University. He wrote and published two novels (Divided, 1948 and Rue the Day, 2009), criticism (The Lyrical Novel, 1963), biographies of Hesse (1978), Rilke (1996), and many essays. His works have been translated into German, French, Italian, Spanish, Korean, and Japanese. A Chinese version of the biography of Rilke is in press.