
The Poems
Seagull Books London Ltd (Publisher)
Published on 31. January 2023
Book
Hardback
412 pages
978-1-80309-069-6 (ISBN)
Description
The first complete publication of Robert Walser's poems translated into English.
Admired by the likes of Kafka, Musil, and Walter Benjamin and acclaimed "unforgettable, heart-rending" by J. M. Coetzee, Swiss writer Robert Walser (1878-1956) remains one of the most influential authors of modern literature. Walser left school at fourteen and led a wandering and precarious existence while producing poems, stories, essays, and novels. In 1933, he abandoned writing and entered a sanatorium, where he remained for the rest of his life. "I am not here to write," Walser said, "but to be mad."
This first collection of Walser's poems in English translation allows English-speaking readers to experience the author as he saw himself at the beginning and the end of his literary career--as a poet. The book also includes notes on dates of composition, draft versions of the printed poems, and brief biographical information on characters and locations that appear in the poems and may not be known to readers. Few writers have ever experienced such a steady rise in their reputation and public profile as Walser has seen in recent years, and this collection of his poems will help readers discover a unique writer whose off-kilter sensibility and innovations in form are perfectly suited to our fragmented, distracted, bewildering era.
Admired by the likes of Kafka, Musil, and Walter Benjamin and acclaimed "unforgettable, heart-rending" by J. M. Coetzee, Swiss writer Robert Walser (1878-1956) remains one of the most influential authors of modern literature. Walser left school at fourteen and led a wandering and precarious existence while producing poems, stories, essays, and novels. In 1933, he abandoned writing and entered a sanatorium, where he remained for the rest of his life. "I am not here to write," Walser said, "but to be mad."
This first collection of Walser's poems in English translation allows English-speaking readers to experience the author as he saw himself at the beginning and the end of his literary career--as a poet. The book also includes notes on dates of composition, draft versions of the printed poems, and brief biographical information on characters and locations that appear in the poems and may not be known to readers. Few writers have ever experienced such a steady rise in their reputation and public profile as Walser has seen in recent years, and this collection of his poems will help readers discover a unique writer whose off-kilter sensibility and innovations in form are perfectly suited to our fragmented, distracted, bewildering era.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Greenford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 233 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 40 mm
Weight
832 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80309-069-6 (9781803090696)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Robert Walser (1878-1956) was a German-speaking Swiss writer who produced seven novels and more than a thousand short stories and prose pieces. Daniele Pantano is a Swiss poet and literary translator, and a senior lecturer in creative writing at the University of Lincoln.
Content
EARLY POEMS (1897-1912)
Poems (Gedichte, 1909)
String and Desire (Saite und Sehnsucht)
Further Selections
POEMS WRITTEN IN BIEL (1919-1920)
POEMS WRITTEN IN BERNE (1924-1933)
Can It Wish Me Anything Other than Happiness
The Child Ponders
Women
Literature
Self-Reflection
Who May Say He Knows Existence!
DELETED EARLY POEMS
DELETED LATE POEMS
AFTERWORD
REFERENCES
INDEX OF TITLES
Poems (Gedichte, 1909)
String and Desire (Saite und Sehnsucht)
Further Selections
POEMS WRITTEN IN BIEL (1919-1920)
POEMS WRITTEN IN BERNE (1924-1933)
Can It Wish Me Anything Other than Happiness
The Child Ponders
Women
Literature
Self-Reflection
Who May Say He Knows Existence!
DELETED EARLY POEMS
DELETED LATE POEMS
AFTERWORD
REFERENCES
INDEX OF TITLES