Description: Times Literary Supplement - Books of the Year ("The most generous available English collection of Brecht's poetry.")
A landmark literary event, The Collected Poems of Bertolt Brecht is the most extensive English translation of Brecht's poetry to date.
Brief description: Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) was a German poet, playwright, and theater director. In those capacities, and also as a polemical essayist, he contributed powerfully to the chief literary and political debates of his day, and lastingly influenced theatrical theory and practice. He left more than 2,000 poems, assuring him a place among the very best lyric poets of Germany.
Review Quotes: Universality makes [Brecht's] poetry as essential a voice of his time as Yeats, Maya Angelou, or Muriel Rukeyser.... translators Kuhn and Constantine offer English speakers an indispensable resource into the intellect and soul of one of the 20th century's greatest writers.... The succinct and superb introductions by the editors take us on the journey of Brecht's life.... This collection is a necessary starting place for what will hopefully be a long history of translations of Brecht's poems into English.... The arrival of Brecht's poems at this moment in American history could hardly be better timed -- although by better I most certainly mean worse, since it offers no relief to say that the most political of Brecht's poems could have been written this morning.--Yuval Sharon, Los Angeles Review of Books