Nicolas Born (1937-1979) is today considered one of the most important writers of the German post-war generation. In the early 1970`s he was achieving an attention through his poetry unusual for a poet until then. Just as time-bound and typical is his poetry for the experiences of his generation - the effects of the war, the economic recovery, the social movements of the `60s and the heavy disillusionment of the `70s - so equally timeless seems his poetry today. Critically and with humor, he dissects through his poetry an increasingly changed reality: the »delusion-system reality«. During his lifetime, Born resisted all attempts to classify him, whether as a politically engaged poet, a poet of everyday life, or as a representative of the »New Inwardness«, of nature poetry, or of early pop literature.
In this critical edition, a quarter of a century after his early death, the outstanding quality of his poetry is more than ever made clear. Included here along with his well-known poetry are early (and until now unpublished) poems thought to have been destroyed in a fire in 1976. A comprehensive appendix includes early forms, reprints, and variations, as well as early drafts, making it possible to gain an insight into Born`s working methods, to trace influences, and to follow the development of his work.