Lost Son is a novel by M. Allen Cunningham, published in May 2007 by Unbridled Books. It is about Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), the famous poet of the Duino Elegies and author of the internationally beloved Letters to a Young Poet.
Lost Son spans Western Europe from 1875 to 1917, depicting Rilke's life from birth to age 42. The poet is shown as child, lover, husband, father, protege, misfit soldier, and lifelong wanderer. The novel explores Rilke's relationships with his parents, his wife Clara Westhoff and their daughter Ruth, the painter Paula Modersohn-Becker, the French sculptor Auguste Rodin, and Lou Andreas-Salomé.