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Although individual letters of both Paul Celan and Nelly Sachs have been previously published, the appearance of their complete correspondence will be most welcome to anyone interested in these two poets. Missing are only Celan's first letter or two, no longer extant, and a portion of a later Celan letter, dealing with the Goll affair, that Sachs destroyed at his request. Some 126 items are present, most of them letters; but a number are poems by Sachs with a brief word of greeting to Celan and his family, some are telegrams, and a couple are comments from Celan's diary about his meetings with Sachs.
The early letters--the first is dated 10 May 1954-are quite interesting. A few sound like poems by their respective authors, and a deep, almost reverential sense of mutual esteem emerges, an attitude that quickly evolves into mutual affection. Nowhere has Celan made more explicit...