Sonnets to Orpheus. Written as a monument for Wera Ouckama Knoop.

First edition. 8vo. 188pp., frontis., yellow cloth boards, lettered in black to spine. The German text, with an English translation, introduction and notes by J. B. Leishman. Originally published as Die Sonette an Orpheus: Geschrieben als ein Grab-Mal für Wera Ouckama Knoop, by Insel-Verlag, Leipzig, in 1923.

Sunned to spine and frayed at crown, tanned to endpapers, bumped to lower fore-corners, else Very Good.

In 55 sonnets, Rainer Maria Rilke plays a set of philosophical and sensual variations on the Orpheus myth. Written in the grip of a "savage creative storm," over a three week period, the cycle was inspired by the sudden death of his daughter's playmate, the dancer Wera Ouckama Knoop (1900–1919), at the tender age of 19. At the same time in February 1922, Rilke finally completed work on his deeply philosophical and mystical ten-poem sequence entitled Duino Elegies, ten years in the writing. Facing-page German text. "Sonnets to Orpheus... is, with the Elegies, Rilke's finest work – the two books really belong together, shine the better for each other's presence." –Conrad Aiken