Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) was a Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist. He is recognised as one of the greatest German-language poets of the 20th century. His publications included one novel, several collections of poetry and a number volumes of correspondence which aid in elucidating the somewhat mystical bent of his poetry. He occupies a somewhat transitional position between the fin-de-siecle movements and 20th century modernism.

While Rilke is most known for his writing in German, he also composed over 400 poems in French. His best-known works are the poetry collections Duino Elegies (Duineser Elegien) and Sonnets to Orpheus (Die Sonette an Orpheus), the semi-autobiographical novel The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge (Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge), and a collection of ten letters that was published posthumously as Letters to a Young Poet (Briefe an einen jungen Dichter).