His early work had been accomplished, but belonged tonally to the impressionistic, feeling-centered world of a late-nineteenth-century aesthetic.Paris was to change everything. Rilke's interest in Rodin deepened and his enthusiasm for the sculptor's "art of living surfaces" set the course for his own pursuit of an objective ideal. What was "new" about Rilke's New Poems, published in two independent volumes in 1907 and 1908, is a compression of statement and a movement away from "expression" and toward "making realities." Poems such as "The Panther" and "Archaic Torso of Apollo" are among the most successful and famous results of Rilke's impulse.This selection from both books unites the companion volumes in a torrent of brilliant work intoxicated with the materiality of the world. Edward Snow has now improved upon the translations for which he received the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award and with which he began his twenty-year project of translating Rilke.

    Three brothers and a sister comprise the Tanner family—Simon, Kaspar, Klaus, and Hedwig: their wanderings, meetings, separations, quarrels, romances, employment and lack of employment over the course of a year or two are the threads from which Walser weaves his airy, strange and brightly gorgeous fabric. “Walser’s lightness is lighter than light,” as Tom Whalen said in Bookforum: “buoyant up to and beyond belief, terrifyingly light.”Robert Walser—admired greatly by Kafka, Musil, and Walter Benjamin—is a radiantly original author. He has been acclaimed “unforgettable, heart-rending” (J.M. Coetzee), “a bewitched genius” (Newsweek), and “a major, truly wonderful, heart-breaking writer” (Susan Sontag). Considering Walser’s “perfect and serene oddity,” Michael Hofmann in The London Review of Books remarked on the “Buster Keaton-like indomitably sad cheerfulness [that is] most hilariously disturbing.” The Los Angeles Times called him “the dreamy confectionary snowflake of German language fiction. He also might be the single most underrated writer of the 20th century....The gait of his language is quieter than a kitten’s.”“A clairvoyant of the small” W. G. Sebald calls Robert Walser, one of his favorite writers in the world, in his acutely beautiful, personal, and long introduction, studded with his signature use of photographs.

    Millions more have protested against the military occupation of Afghanistan. These antiwar sentiments publicly expressed are a reflection of a deeply rooted anti-militarism. Yet wars and militarism abound.War, according to Karl Liebknecht, "is for profit between the capitalist classes of the world powers," and the maintenance of an army ensures their retention of power. In this book, which is one of the great classics of anti-militarism, Liebknecht examines the ways in which militarism is promoted and maintained; reviews the harsh punishments meted out to soldiers, anti-militarists, and war resisters; and surveys the activities of anti-militarists, both specific tactics and the underlying philosophy.The Duluth Herald (Minnesota) predicted there "will come a time in Germany when Karl Liebknecht, pilloried and imprisoned today for daring to speak the truth, will rank higher in the list of German heroes than the Kaiser." It was an accurate prediction, says Professor Philip Foner, historian at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, who went on to add, "unfortunately his classic book is out of print." Militarism and Anti-Militarism is now available again, important in these times.Karl Liebknecht (1871–1919) was a member of the Reichstag who was imprisoned during World War I as an anti-militarist Social Democrat. He was a founding member, with Rosa Luxemburg, of the German Communist Party (KPD) in 1918, and he led an unsuccessful revolt in Berlin in January 1919. Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg were murdered by the German right wing immediately thereafter.