RILKE, Rainer Maria.

£1,250 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

"Jetzt und in der Stunde unseres Absterbens...". Scene. First edition of Rilke's early one-act play, one of 300 copies, which Rilke began distributing himself while wandering the public squares of Prague. It represents the second number in his self-published periodical Wegwarten, in which he first issued works under his own name. The play premiered later the same year at Heines Garten, Prague on 6 August 1896. In the foreword to the first instalment of Wegwarten, Rilke sets out the idealistic basis of the publication: "Cheap editions are not enough: even two kreuzer is too much if the choice is book or bread. If you want to give to all - then give! According to Paracelsus, the wild chicory [Wegwarten] becomes a living being once every century: and the legend may well be fulfilled in these songs - perhaps they will awake to a higher life in the soul of the people" (Prater, pp. 19-20).

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