FRIEDRICH HOLDERLIN'S LIFE, POETRY & MADNESS

by Wilhelm Waiblinger

Translated by Will Stone

After a childhood marked by loss and grief, Hölderlin studied theology in the illustrious company of Hegel and Schelling, before concentrating on poetry and writing his most famous work, Hyperion. But, afflicted by the pressures of life and a doomed love affair, he gradually went mad, and spent the final thirty-six years of his life in a solitary tower in Tübingen, cared for by a kindly carpenter. The younger poet Wilhelm Waiblinger (1804–30) was one of the few people to gain Hölderlin’s confidence, and visited him often; this is his beautifully written memoir of the stricken poet, a unique insight into his personality, sensitively translated by Will Stone.

WILL STONE is a poet, literary translator andessayist whose published translations include works by Georg Trakl, Gérard de Nerval, Emile Verhaeren, Georges Rodenbach, Rainer Maria Rilke, Stefan Zweig, Joseph Roth and Georg Simmel.
Will has contributed reviews and essays to among others The TLS, The London Magazine, The RA Magazine, Apollo Magazine, Modern Poetry in Translation, Poetry Review, Agenda and The White Review. Further works by Stefan Zweig and a Collected Poems of Georg Trakl will appear in 2019. He is currently working on Immortal Wreckage –
Journeys at the Crossroads of Europe, a book exploring the lesser-known aspects of the culture, history and landscapes of Belgium.

Publication date: 27/04/2018