Rilke on Death and Other Oddities

Opening with a brief account of the life and work of the early 20th Century German-language poet Rainer Maria Rilke, the book then has its first major set piece, a lengthy and provocative selection from his prose writings on death, for him the most important topic of all.

This is followed by a light-hearted account of Rilke´s surprising popularity in the U. S. of A., even extending to Hollywood. A short chapter on Rilke´s obsession with the scientific accuracy of his poetry and another on his poetic humor, prepare the reader for the second major set piece of the book --- a revealing look at his masterwork on death, the 860-line poem Duinese Elegies. The book closes with appendices on Rilke and god, translating Rilke, and a listing of the nearly 30 English translations of Duinese Elegies.

Mood, a Ph.D. in literature and philosophy, taught at the university level for ten years. He published numerous scholarly articles (PMLA, Chicago Review. Philosophy Today) on existentialism (Nietzsche, Heidegger) and literature (Beckett, Swift, Frost, Sexton). He spoke at two international Joyce symposia (Trieste, 1971; Dublin, 1973).

After leaving academia, he became a freelance writer popularizing astronomy, while continuing his literary interests, especially in Joyce and the German-language poet Rainer Maria Rilke. His book, Rilke on Love and Other Difficulties, has been in print with W. W. Norton continuously since 1975, making it the second largest selling book on Rilke in the entire English-speaking world. In 2004, he published Joyce's "Ulysses" for Everyone, Or How to Skip Reading It the First Time. In 2007, he published Rilke on Death and Other Oddities.