Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926), born in Prague into a German-speaking family, is widely recognized as one of the world’s great poets. He is the author of the novel The Notebook of Malte Laurids Brigge and several books of poetry, including The Book of Hours, The Book of Images, New Poems, The Life of the Virgin Mary, The Duino Elegies, and Sonnets to Orpheus. He wrote approximately about fifteen thousand letters to an enormous range of recipients. Letters to a Young Poet and Letters on Life have inspired countless readers. Ulrich Baer was educated at Harvard and Yale and has been awarded John Simon Guggenheim, DAAD, Paul Getty, and Alexander von Humboldt fellowships. He is Vice Provost and Professor of German and Comparative Literature at New York University. His previous books include Remnants of Song: Trauma and the Experience of Modernity in Charles Baudelaire and Paul Celan, Spectral Evidence: The Photography of Trauma, The Rilke Alphabet, Beggar’s Chicken: Stories from Shanghai, and We Are But a Moment. He edited 110 Stories: New York Writes After September 11, and edited and translated Letters on Life: New Prose Translations, published by the Modern Library.