For the first time, Etty Hillesum's diary and letters appear together to give us the fullest possible portrait of this extraordinary woman. In the darkest years of Nazi occupation and genocide, Etty Hillesum remained a celebrant of life whose lucid intelligence, sympathy, and almost impossible gallantry were themselves a form of inner resistance. The adult counterpart to Anne Frank, Hillesum testifies to the possibility of awareness and compassion in the face of the most devastating challenge to one's humanity. She died at Auschwitz in 1943 at the age of twenty-nine.

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) was an avid letter writer, and more than seven thousand of his letters have survived. The best-known collection today is Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, first published in 1929. Two other letter collections appeared around the same time and gained high acclaim among readers yet are virtually unknown today. They are Letters to a Young Woman (1930) and Letters on God (1933).

With this volume, Annemarie S. Kidder makes available to an English-speaking audience two of the earliest collections of Rilke letters published after his death. The thematic collection On God-- here published in English for the first time--contains two letters by Rilke, the first an actual letter written during World War I, in 1915 in Munich, the second a fictional one composed after the war, in 1922 at Muzot, in Switzerland. In these letters, Rilke builds on the mystical view of God conceived of in The Book of Hours, but he moves beyond it, demonstrating a unique vision of God and Christ, the church and religious experience, friendship and death. The collection Letters to a Young Woman comprises nine of Rilke's letters, written to a young admirer, Lisa Heise, over the course of five years, from 1919 to 1924. Though Rilke and Heise never met, Rilke emerges in these letters as the compassionate listener and patient teacher who with level-headed sensitivity affirms and guides the movements of another person's soul.

The purpose of the book is to show that for Christians, both men and women, the single life is an option equally valid and honorable to marriage. It does so by examining the issue of celibacy throughout the church's history with special regard of women. Sections include: Celibacy and the Bible; Celibacy and the Early Church; Celibacy as Seen by the Church Fathers; Celibacy from the Church Fathers to the Reformation and Until Today.

In the hustle and bustle of modern life the word "solitude" may provoke a sigh of relief or the anxiety of loneliness. Dr. Kidder has found that a significant dimension of our spiritual lives is most deeply encountered in solitude. Married, single, or recently divorced -- all of us can find opportunities for solitude that offer a unique opportunity for personal growth and encounters with God. Themes include: romantic allure as a substitute for spirituality; the loner syndrome; cultural conditioning; coupling, co-habitation, and community; fear of loneliness; overachieving; the search for intimacy; the search for sexual fulfillment; Biblical roots; Jesus, the solitary person; Mary and the Annunciation; Mary Magdalene in the Gospels, the Gospel of Thomas, and the DaVinci Code; Augustine, Luther, and Calvin; evangelicalism; prayer, song, drama; spiritual direction; meditation; tending to the body; vows and covenants of temporary/long-term abstinence; and coping with opposition.

The first complete translation of Rainer Maria Rilke's The Book of Hours in more than forty years, this publication restores to the English-speaking reader a critical work in the development of the most significant figure in twentieth-century German poetry. Conveying an almost mystical conception of the relationship between God, the human being, and nature, The Book of Hours (Das Stundenbuch, first published in 1905) is a series of intimate prayers written as if by a Russian monk turned painter -- writings that bring to bear the profound influence of Rilke's journeys to Russia and Italy at the turn of the century.

A tripartite work comprised of "The Book of the Monkish Life", "The Book of Pilgrimage", and "The Book of Poverty and Death", the book is published here in a bilingual format, with the original German and the English translation on facing pages. Annemarie S. Kidder's delicately nuanced translation imitates Rilke's uncomplicated and melodic flow, his rhythm and, where possible, his rhyme, while remaining true to content. Each line closely reflects the thought of the original as it strives to preserve Rilke's simplicity of style, economy of words, and candor in addressing God.

Kidder's introduction and commentary offer historical and interpretive background information, largely from Rilke's own diaries and correspondence, chronicling the influence of various geographical settings on the writing of The Book of Hours and illustrating his own spiritual quest. Also included are translated excerpts of an earlier manuscript of The Book of Hours, along with prose inserts that interpret the reading of the poetry.