Author. He was a German-language author of one novel, several collections of poetry, nonfictional prose and several volumes of correspondence, written in the early 20th century. He is considered one of the most outstanding German authors of this era. Born René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke, an only child, his mother called him "Sophia." According to an article in the "Washington Post," he was forced by his mother to wear girl's clothes and his hair in long braids until he was aged five, as his mother was compensating for the earlier loss of a baby daughter. Rilke's parents separated when he was nine. In 1886, his father, who was a retired military man, sent him to the military academy, but for health reasons, he left in 1891. Not enjoying his experience at the academy, he was sent to a business school in Linz for one year. Trying to find a career, he also worked in his uncle's law firm. In the summer of 1895, he completed the course of studies designed to prepare for admission to a university. Rilke continued his studies at the universities of Prague, Munich, and Berlin. As a poet he made his debut at the age of nineteen with "Leben und lieder." In 1899. Rilke traveled in Russia, visiting other authors, including Leo Tolstoy. Upon returning from Russia, he started his three-volume "The Book of Hours" with the first volume, "The Book of Monastic Life," being published in 1899. His writings exposed his non-traditional concept of God. He spent some time in Italy, Sweden, and Denmark, and joined an artist's colony at Worpswede in 1903. In 1901 Rilke married Clara Westhoff, a student of sculptor Rodin, and the couple had a daughter, Ruth, before their separation a year later. He published the second volume of "The Books of Hours: The Book of Pilgrimage" before his daughter was born in 1901. While in Italy, Rilke composed in rhymed the third volume of "The Book of Hours: The Book of Poverty and Death" in 1903. After he had separated from his wife, he settled in Paris to write "Rodin and Other Prose" in 1903 and to work for his secretary from 1905 to 1906. He also wrote his 1899 lyric story, "The Tale of the Love and Death of Cornet Christopher Rilke," which was revised in 1906 and published in 1912. His only novel "The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge" was published in 1910. During his Paris years, Rilke developed a new style of lyrical poetry, writing more than 400 poems in French. Rilke kept silence as a poet for twelve years before writing a 10-elegies collection in 1912, "Duino Elegies," and containing 55 poems, "Sonnets to Orpheus" in 1922. At the start of World War I, he was residing in Germany, serving six months in the Austrian army at Vienna before being discharged. After 1919, he lived in Switzerland, occupied by his work and roses in his little garden. For time to time, he went to Paris for a few months or to Italy, being warmly received by the literary world. He was diagnosed from a rare leukemia and spent much time at the Val-Mont sanatorium before his death. In the years of his career, he attempted to write plays but did not succeed. From 1903 to 1908 Rilke wrote a series of ten remarkable letters to a nineteen-year-old military cadet, who wrote Rilke for advice. These letters were published posthumously as "Letters to a Young Poet" in 1929. Many of his collections of poetry as well as other writings have been translated to English.