Ulrich Baer

Rainer Maria Rilke

An illuminating translation of writings by the Czech-born poet presents a selection of observations and reflections on the topics of illness and death, dreams and religion, language and art, love and happiness, work and ambition, childhood and old age, in a study of what makes up a meaningful life. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.

New Prose Translations

Letters on Life

Vice Provost for Arts Humanities and Diversity and Professor of German and Comparative Literature Ulrich Baer

WE ARE BUT A MOMENT takes the reader on a brisk tour of the globe that vividly imagines the inescapable crisis of the near future posed by overpopulation, diminishing natural resources, climate change, species extinction, and economic tumult. It is 2025, and a young White House aide, Aleks, finds himself locked up in quarantine when he tested positive after a routine briefing from a hotspot. Aleks recounts how our much-admired female president became a globally revered leader who unites much of the world under the environmental banner. Aleks's position as environmental advisor to the president's policy team gives him a privileged insider's view into the political maneuvering that has led to U.S. global dominance. When he discovers unfamiliar files on his computer, he is thrown into a moral crisis over who he trusts, what he believes, and the value of the causes for which he has been fighting as he grapples to make sense of the people and events that led to his quarantine. Philosophical rather than prescriptive, the book is about how we live and die in the 21st century, what we consume, how we inhabit our world, and whether we can all live and love in the future.

We Are But a Moment

The renowned Rilke scholar brings the poet’s work to life for modern readers through 26 essays, each devoted to a single word found in his writings. Ulrich Baer’s The Rilke Alphabet explores the enduring power of one of the world’s greatest poets, a visionary who saw that even the smallest overlooked word could unlock life’s mysteries. With deep insight and love for Rilke’s language, Baer examines twenty-six words that are not merely unexpected in his work, but problematic—even scandalous. Through twenty-six evocative essays, Baer sheds new light on Rilke’s creative process and his deepest thoughts about life, art, politics, sexuality, love, and death. The Rilke Alphabet shows how the poet’s work can be a guide to life even in our contemporary world. Whether it is a love letter to frogs, a troubling—though brief—infatuation with Mussolini, a sustained reflection on the Buddha, or the impassioned assertion that freedom must be lived in order to be known, Rilke’s thoroughly original writings pull us deeply into life. Baer’s decades-long experience as a scholar, translator, and editor of Rilke’s writings allows him to reveal unique aspects of Rilke’s work. The Rilke Alphabet will surprise and delight Rilke fans, and deepen every reader’s sense of the power of poetry to penetrate the mysteries of our world.

The Rilke Alphabet

In a bold reassessment, this book analyzes the works of Baudelaire and Celan, two poets who frame our sense of modern poetry and define the beginning and end of modernity itself. It relates Baudelaire's exploration of the trauma of the minute personal shocks of everyday existence to Celan's engagement with the catastrophic magnitude of the Holocaust.

Trauma and the Experience of Modernity in Charles Baudelaire and Paul Celan

Remnants of Song

The enduring power of Rainer Maria Rilke’s poetry rests with his claim that all we need for a better life on earth is already given to us, in the here and now. In twenty-six engaging and accessible essays, Ulrich Baer’s The Rilke Alphabet examines this promise by one of the greatest poets in any tradition that even the smallest overlooked word may unlock life’s mysteries to us. Fueled by an unebbing passion and indeed love for Rilke’s poetry, Baer examines twenty-six words that are not only unexpected but also problematic, controversial, and even scandalous in Rilke’s work. In twenty-six mesmerizing essays that eschew jargon and teutonic learnedness for the pleasures and risks of unflinchingly engaging with a great artist’s genius, Baer sheds new light on Rilke’s politics, his creative process, and his deepest and enduring thoughts about life, art, politics, sexuality, love, and death. The Rilke Alphabet shows how Rilke’s work provides an uncannily apt guide to life even in our vexingly postmodern condition. Whether it is a love letter to frogs, a problematic brief infatuation with Mussolini, a sustained reflection on the Buddha, the evasion of the influence of powerful precursors, or the unambiguous assertion that freedom must be lived in order to be known, Rilke’s writings pull us deeply into life. Baer’s decades-long engagement with Rilke as a scholar, translator, and editor of Rilke’s writings allows him to reveal unique aspects of Rilke’s work. The Rilke Alphabet will surprise and delight Rilke fans, intrigue newcomers to his work, and deepen every reader’s sense of the power of poetry to penetrate the mysteries and confusions of our world.

Smaran Dayal

An unprecedented compendium of milestones in the history of American literature. Presents all of the "first" literary works that broke barriers and inaugurated new traditions; with concise introductions.

The Book of Firsts

Fictions of America

In the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, some of New York City's leading authors of fiction, poetry, and dramatic prose reflect on the event in vivid, creative works by Paul Auster, Edwidge Danticat, Phillip Lopate, Susan Wheeler, Vivian Gornick, Lynne Sharon Schwartz, and others. Reprint.

New York Writes After September 11

110 Stories

An original analysis of the parallels between the arrested moment in photography and in the traumatized psyche.

The Photography of Trauma

Spectral Evidence

Angry debates about polarizing speakers have roiled college campuses. Conservatives accuse universities of muzzling unpopular opinions, betraying their values of open inquiry; students sympathetic to the left openly advocate against completely unregulated speech, asking for "safe spaces" and protection against visiting speakers and even curricula they feel disrespects them. Some even call these students "snowflakes"-too fragile to be exposed to opinions and ideas that challenge their worldviews. How might universities resolve these debates about free speech, which pit their students' welfare against the university's commitment to free inquiry and open debate? Ulrich Baer here provides a new way of looking at this dilemma. He explains how the current dichotomy is false and is not really about the feelings of offended students, or protecting an open marketplace of ideas. Rather, what is really at stake is our democracy's commitment to equality, and the university's critical role as an arbiter of truth. He shows how and why free speech has become the rallying cry that forges an otherwise uneasy alliance of liberals and ultra-conservatives, and why this First Amendment absolutism is untenable in law and society in general. He draws on law, philosophy, and his extensive experience as a university administrator to show that the lens of equality can resolve this impasse, and can allow the university to serve as a model for democracy that upholds both truth and equality as its founding principles.

Ulrich Baer

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