Georg Heym (1887-1912) was one of the most powerful and unsettling voices of German Expressionism. In a literary career cut tragically short, he created a body of work filled with visions of cities, war, death, desire, madness, and the strange beauty of the modern world.
This collection brings together a broad selection of Heym's writing in English translation. It includes The Eternal Day, the poetry collection published during his lifetime, along with poems published posthumously. Also included is The Thief, his collection of short stories, two dramatic works-Atalana and The Revolution-and selections from his diaries, offering an intimate glimpse into the imagination and ambitions of the young poet.
Heym's language is vivid, hallucinatory, and often apocalyptic. His poems transform streets and cities into vast, threatening landscapes; his stories explore the grotesque and the uncanny; his plays reveal his fascination with violence and upheaval; and his diaries expose the restless mind behind the work.
More than a century after his death, Heym's vision remains startlingly modern. These translations offer readers an opportunity to encounter one of German Expressionism's most original and uncompromising writers in the full range of his literary work.
Related Subjects
Poetry