Duineser Elegien. Elegies from the Castle of Duino. Translated from the German by V. Sackville-West and Edward Sackville-West.

8vo (some very light spotting at edges).

Orig. half vellum, gilt-titled flat spine, top edge gilt, cardboard slipcase (without the orig. wrapper and slipcase). Good copy.

First English edition of this collection of poetry by the Prague born poet Rilke (1875-1926), limited to 230 numb. copies on hand-made Maillol-Kessler paper and signed by the translators Vita and Edward Sackville-West (n. 131). The 20 woodcut initials were designed and cut by the English sculptor Eric Gill (1882-1940). English and German texts facing each other.
The Hogarth Press was founded in 1917 by Leonard and Virginia Woolf, as a hobby and diversion. The main translator of this book, the English writer and garden designer Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962), played an important role in the life of Virginia Woolf, as friend, lover and in the case of one of her most famous books, "Orlando", muse. Rilke started writing this collection of poetry in 1911-1912 during his stay at the Castle of Duino near Trieste, and it was finished and first published in 1922. In the translator's note, the Sackville-Wests mention that "Rilke himself considered the Duineser Elegien as the climax of his work, and there seems every reason to agree with this opinion [...] the Elegies remain a monument, in their strange perfection, of absolutely first class poetry".
Ref. Woolmer 268.