{"product_id":"how-to-begin-edmund-de-waal-9781784746704","title":"How to Begin","description":"\u003cp\u003eInspiration for a creative life from the author of the international bestselling THE HARE WITH AMBER EYES and LETTERS TO CAMONDO\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e'Enchanting, illuminating and tender' - Nigel Slater\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eElisabeth  de Waal 's letters, with their ardour, impatience and melodrama, are wonderfully alive.  Edmund de Waal's  argument about quiet perseverance and mentorship emerges with subtle force - Sunday Times\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e'Charming and heartfelt... a pleasure to read' - Literary Review\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e'I believe you can live in a book of poems'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA book about finding a creative voice and becoming an artist via a startling rediscovery in Edmund de Waal's family archives - letters between his grandmother and the charismatic poet Rainer Maria Rilke\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e** With letters translated from the German by prizewinning translator, Karen Leeder **\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a story about how to begin.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1921, Elisabeth Ephrussi writes a letter to the great poet Rainer Maria Rilke. She too is a poet, or an aspiring one - a young law student in Vienna just beginning her creative life. To her surprise, Rilke writes back with advice. A five-year correspondence follows, an exchange of lyrical and exhortatory letters alongside books, translations, poems in manuscript. They never meet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFifty years later, Elisabeth's grandson, Edmund de Waal, wants to be a poet and a potter. He sends her his own poetry, and she responds with guidance and Rilke's Duino Elegies.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHow to Begin follows Edmund's journey as an artist. This is a book about failure, about starting again, about apprenticeship and asking for and then disregarding advice, about working out ways to keep going when you don't know how.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt is a moving, intergenerational story about the traces of memory within a family, and a deeply personal reflection on how we learn resilience with the support of others. It is for any reader starting out, seeking the permission to begin.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Edmund de Waal","offers":[{"title":"New","offer_id":69080964792563,"sku":"9781784746704","price":39.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0634\/4284\/5939\/files\/9781784746704.jpg?v=1794423527","url":"https:\/\/www.harryhartog.com.au\/products\/how-to-begin-edmund-de-waal-9781784746704","provider":"Harry Hartog Bookseller","version":"1.0","type":"link"}