Rainer Maria Rilke was born in Prague in 1875 and traveled throughout Europe for much of his adult life, returning frequently to Paris. There he came under the influence of the sculptor Auguste Rodin and produced much of his finest verse, most notably the two volumes of "New Poems "as well as the great modernist novel "The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge." Among his other books of poems are "The Book of Images" and "The Book of Hours. "He lived the last years of his life in Switzerland, where he completed his two poetic masterworks, the "Duino Elegies" and "Sonnets to Orpheus." He died of leukemia in December 1926. Joel Agee has also translated Elias Canetti, Friedrich Durenmatt, Gottfried Benn, and another collection of Rilke's letters, "Rilke and Benvenuta: An Intimate Correspondence." He won the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize for his translation of Heinrich von Kleist's "Penthesilea, " a verse play. He is the author of "Twelve Years: An American Boyhood in East Germany" and lives in Brooklyn.