William Dean Howells was a US-American author who lived from 1837 to 1920. He wrote this bespoke seasonal poem starting off with dramatic words of ruthless deathly winter, while then gliding into a warm and vibrant ode to life, that has never ended or surrendered, but was just waiting out the hard times patiently and confidently. The artist’s book is …

Rainer Maria Rilke was  born in Prague in 1875. He traveled a  lot throughout Europe and settled in Switzerland, where he died in 1926 of Leukemia. He’s been writing in German both novels and poems. His language is powerful and he is perceived as mystical. He met Leo Tolstoi, Paula Modersohn-Becker and was married to the sculptor Clara Westhoff. I printed …