Invitation from a Princess

Princess Marie Taxis to Rilke in Paris

Paris, Hotel Liverpool,

Rue Castiglione

Friday 10. December 1909

Dear Herr Rielke, [sic]

Forgive me for sending you these lines without knowing you, though actually I can hardly say ‘without knowing you’ to a poet whose works I admire so much - besides, we have a mutual friend, Dr Rudolf Kassner, who has often spoken to me about you. So I would be very happy to make your acquaintance and am asking whether you could come to see me at the Hotel Liverpool on Monday at five. The Comtesse Mathiew de Noajilles will be there too and would also be happy to meet you. So please let me know whether you can come.

With best wishes

Yours sincerely

Princess v Thurn und Taxis-Hohenlohe

-from Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke and Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis / translated by Nora Wydenbruck (London: Hogarth, 1958).