Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), considered one of the greatest German-language writers, published his first collection of verse in 1894, while he was still at school, and continued to write poetry and prose throughout his life, becoming a master of both. Rilke died in Switzerland in 1926. Vita Sackville-West was an English novelist, poet and garden designer. Born to an artistocratic family, she became a prolific and successful author, publishing many novels and a dozen volumes of poetry. Sackville-West had a long, intense relationship with Virginia Woolf, and was the main inspiration for the titular character in Woolf's Orlando. Edward Sackville-West was an English novelist and music critic who, in his later years, became a member of the British House of Lords.