The Dark Interval: Letters on Loss, Grief and Transformation

Description

From one of the most famous poets in history comes a new selection of writings to bereaved friends and acquaintances, providing comfort in a time of grief. The result is a profound vision of the mourning process and a meditation on death's place in our lives, as well as a compilation of sensitive and moving expressions of consolation and condolence.

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) was one of the greatest lyric German poets. Born in Prague, he published his first book of poems, Leben und Lieber, at age nineteen. He met Lou Salome, the talented and spirited daughter of a Russian army officer, who influenced him deeply. In 1902 he became a friend, and for a time the secretary, of Rodin, and it was during his twelve-year Paris residence that Rilke enjoyed his greatest poetic activity. In 1919 he went to Switzerland where he spent the last years of his life. It was there that he wrote his last two works, Duino Elegies (1923) and The Sonnets to Orpheus (1923). Ulrich Baer is a writer, translator, and scholar who has published books on poetry, photography, and the relations between memory, testimony, trauma, and culture. As Vice Provost at NYU, he oversees faculty, arts, humanities and diversity in addition to teaching poetry, philosophy, and globalization as Professor of German and Comparative Literature.