About the Author

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) is considered one of the greatest German-language writers to have ever lived. He is best known for his Duino Elegies, Sonnets to Orpheus, and The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge.

Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962) was an English novelist, poet and garden designer. Born to an aristocratic family in the Kent countryside, she became a prolific and successful author, publishing many novels and a dozen volumes of poetry.

Edward Sackville-West (1901-65) was an English novelist and music critic who, in his later years, became a member of the House of Lords. He wrote several well-received novels and biographies and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his book on Thomas de Quincey.

Reviews

'The deepest mysteries of existence embodied in the most delicate and precise images. For me, the greatest poetry of the 20th century' - Philip Pullman