About the Book: Letters to a Young Poet
At the start of the twentieth century, Rainer Maria Rilke wrote a series of
letters to a young officer cadet, advising him on writing, love, sex, suffering
and the nature of advice itself; these profound and lyrical letters have since
become hugely influential for writers and artists of all kinds. This book also
contains the Letter from a Young Worker, a striking polemic against Christianity
written in letter-form, near the end of Rilkes life. In Lewis Hydes
introduction, he explores the context in which these letters were written and
how the author embraced his isolation as a creative