Rainer Maria Rilke Diskussionforum

Dear Forum,

Does the Samtliche Werke of Rilke include all his letters? And does it also include a comprehensive index?

Warm wishes,

Julian

Dear Julian,

the different editions „Sämtliche Werke“ don't contain private letters - there you can find "only" Rilke's Werke: his poems, his novel, his short stories, his plays, his writings about art (Worpswede, Rodin... several reviews...), and in some also his translations and "open" letters he himself addressed to the public.
As you know, thousands of Rilke's private letters have been published after his death, in different collections.

Do you look for any special letter?

All the best,
stilz

Hello Stilz,

Thanks for the reply - actually, I should've asked the question about Rilke's letters in the 'Briefe', a 3 volume set published with, I believe, the help of the Rilke Archive. Would you know if there is an index for these volumes? In particular, I'm looking for letters that Rilke wrote on art, so an index with words like Leonardo, El Greco, or Van Gogh would be very helpful. Hope you can help, and thanks for your time,

Warm regards,

Julian

Hi Julian,

I don't think that a 3 volume-edition could contain all published letters, let alone all letters Rilke wrote. After all, he is said to have written about 10.000 letters...
And I don't know of an index like the one you wish for - I'm afraid it doesn't exist.

But there are several editions of Rilke's correspondence with specific persons.
I would recommend browsing Rilke's correspondence with his wife Clara who - as you probably know - was a painter. The collection Briefe über Cézanne is even translated in English: translated in English; there is also an edition including Cézanne's paintings.

And do you know the Rilke-Chronik? Two volumes with many details about his life and work, including an index of names.There you can find several quotations, and the receivers and calendar dates of the respective letters mentioning the names in question... of course, even here not all letters could be included.
(By the way, the editor, Dr. Renate Scharffenberg, in her lifetime was a member of this forum.)

Good luck!
stilz

Thank-you again Stilz for your considerate reply (and patience, no doubt). I'll order the Rilke Chronik through my library and take a look. Dr. Renate Scharffenberg sounds indeed like a wonderful person to have known and a great contributor your mission - it's beautiful how some of us can live so quietly but with such meaning. Thanks again, and until the next time, yours,

Julian