The Letters and Journals

By Paula Modersohn-Becker

Book Overview

These rare documents chronicle the developing persona of the young woman Expressionist painter at the turn of the century, struggling to resolve the conflict between what she demanded of herself as an artist and what society expected of her as a married woman. Radycki provides an intriguing guide to the art capitals of Berlin, London, and Paris through the eyes of a woman studying art there and through contemporary sources that describe the artistic milieu and the status of women in 1900.
We view the changing relationships between Becker and her friends, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, Clara Westhoff (the sculptor who married Rilke), and her husband, the painter Otto Modersohn. The letters begin when Becker is in art school and end within a month of her tragic death in 1907 at age thirty-one. The epilogue includes Rilke's intense "Requiem" of 1908, translated by Lilly Engler and Adrienne Rich and never before published and Rich's own moving "Paula Becker to Clara Westhoff."

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0810813440
• ISBN13: 9780810813441
• Release Date: January 1980
• Publisher: Scarecrow Press
• Length: 370 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

A Worthy Read

Having finished "Paula Modersohn-Becker" by Gillian Perry (ISBN 0064384217), I wanted a more in-depth read of PMB's life and writings. This is the first complete edition of PMB's letters and journals. Also included are letters from her family and friends. It's a very thorough representation of her life as an emerging artist. The editors did exhaustive research for this edition and the entries are heavily annotated at the back of the book. I enjoy flipping back to read the explanations for certain names that are mentioned or how the original, and extremely incomplete edition, of her writings compares. I have to say that the editors have not approached their subject with any sense of sentimentality, which I appreciate. They tell it like it is and let her words speak for themselves (unlike the original, abbreviated edition of her writings). What also makes it so enjoyable is Paula herself. She's an excellent writer - very lyrical and at times poetic. She's overly romantic, but her descriptions are excellent. I highly recommend this book along with the one mentioned above for a thorough take on this talented woman whose life was cut so short at the age of 31. (By the way, this book does include b & w reproductions of some of PMB's work, but they are a waste of space - really bad copies. Again, I recommend the Gillian Perry book to see her work).