An intimate portrait of Rainer Maria Rilke's life and art in interwar Paris by his friend and
translator offering unparalleled insight into the creative process A stunningly written
deeply personal biography that's also a master class in the art of translation perfect for
fans of: Richard Holmes Lydia Davis Kate Briggs and Julian Green From walks in the Luxembourg
Garden to letters describing tea with an irascible Tolstoy Rainer Maria Rilke's French
translator Maurice Betz enjoyed a rare intimacy with the great poet. This book inspired by
their time working together on the 1st French translation of Rilke's only novel invites the
reader into that friendship offering glimpses of Rilke's creative process and the glittering
cultural scene of interwar Paris. Betz first came to Rilke as an admirer carrying a book of
his poems in his kit bag while serving as a soldier in World War I. No other writer meant so
much to him and Rilke would come to mean even more once their fruitful partnership began
lasting until the poet's death in 1926. Together they spent the spring and summer of 1925
editing Betz's translation of The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge a painstaking process
interrupted by companionable walks through the streets of Paris and vivaciously told anecdotes
from the poet's starry social world. This elegant and poignant look at the great writer's final
years drawn from Betz's memories and the letters Rilke sent from his travels across Europe
provides a portrait of a brilliant mind an evocation of a lost world and a testament to an
enduring friendship.
