This collection features a cogent introduction and includes representative poems by some 60 modern poets, including Ingeborg Bachmann, Gottfried Benn, Berthold Brecht, Paul Celan, Gnnter Eich, Gnnter Grass, Georg Heym, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Franz Kafka, Gnnter Kunert, Gertrud Kolmar, Friederike Mayr÷cker, Rainer Maria Rilke, Nelly Sachs, and many others. Although there are several solid bilingual anthologies of 20th-century German poetry, the German-speaking countries have witnessed such a staggering excess of lyrical expression over the past century that there is still room for a new angle. Alas, not this one. Part of Continuum's "German Library" series, this unfocused anthology contributes little to the still-growing field. Besides lacking an introduction that provides an overview of the various literary movements, it offers an aloof preface, terse both in content and length. The choice of poems, too, is rather predictable even if many have been newly translated by the editors themselves. German scholar Grimm and poet Hunt have organized the anthology chronologically, according to the poets' birth dates, but have not included the publication year of the poems. It is thus difficult for all but their fellow scholars to contemplate the historical context in which they were written. They have also purposefully excluded all Nazi and Stalinist poetry, arguing that "those products are of poor aesthetic quality." By excluding the poetry of a key epoch in Europe's history, the editors have failed to make a distinction between an opinion and the quality of an artistic expression and have assembled an anthology that misrepresents a century diverse in both. Finally, although the anthology highlights the second half of the 20th century, there is not a single vital poem here that was not included, and masterfully translated, in Charlotte Melin's better- structured German Poetry in Transition, 1945-1990 (LJ 2/15/00). Recommended for large academic libraries only. Mirela Roncevic, "Library Journal" Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. "As one would expect, the quality of the translations is universally of the highest order....there is no uniformity of style, technique, or methodology. This is, I think, one of the collection's strong points." Trans-Lit, Summer & Winter 2002 Reinhold Grimm is on the board of The Germany Library and lives in Riverside, CA.Irmgard Hunt is a poet and teaches at Colorado State University, Fort Collins. Used Book in Good Condition