Rainer Maria Rilke
(1875–1926)

A prolific and introspective writer, Rainer Maria Rilke is now believed to be one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. Rilke lived a predominantly isolated life, choosing to travel to countries such as Italy, France, Switzerland, and most notably, Russia, rather than to settle down. His trips to Russia were the inspiration behind the successful Poems From the Book of Hours, which was published in 1905 and followed another of his great works, Stories of God (1904).

In Stories of God, Rilke earned recognition through his profound expression of mysticism, an element that was present in many of his other works. As a poet, Rilke continued to explore emotional and spiritual themes and conveyed these findings through rich and often intense verse. Rilke personally favored his Duino Elegies (1923), which was a collection of elegiac poetry that he believed to be his greatest poetic achievement. The creativity and soul-searching depth of his writing has merited respect for many of his other works, especially the critically acclaimed novel The Tale of the Love and Death of Cornet Christopher Rilke (1906).

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