The Best of Rilke

Hamlin was born in Waterford, Maine, son of Hannibal and Susanna Faulkner Hamlin. He graduated from Bridgeton Academy (1830), Bowdoin College (1834), and Bangor Theological Seminary (1837). He was appointed in 1837 by the American Board of Commissioner for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) to serve in the Near East. In September 1838 he married Henrietta Jackson, and the couple sailed for Constantinople in December of that year.

Hamlin directed Bebek Seminary, a mission school in …

Walter Arndt is Sherman Fairchild Professor of Humanities and Professor of Russian Language and Literature, Emeritus, at Dartmouth College. His verse translations include Goethe’s Faust (1976) and Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin (1963).

Rainer Maria Rilke was born in Prague in 1875. After a motley education at military and business schools and at Prague’s Charles University, he traveled in Europe, Russia, Egypt, and Tunsinia. In addition to Sonnets to Orpheus, Rilke’s works include the Duino Elegies, The Book of Pictures, Poems from the Book of Hours, New Poems, and The Notebook of Malte Laurids Brigge. Rilke died in 1926.