The Leavetaking

PETER WEISS was a German writer, painter, graphic artist, and experimental filmmaker. He is best known for his plays "Marat/Sade" and "The Investigation," as well as the monumental three-volume historical novel The Aesthetics of Resistance. Born in Germany in 1916 to a Christian mother and a Jewish father, he began his career as visual artist, studying at the Prague Art Academy in the late '30s. After the German occupation of the Sudetenland, his family moved to Sweden, where Weiss would spend the rest of his life, eventually becoming a Swedish citizen. His work won many major German literary awards, including the Buchner and Mann Prizes, and Peter Brook's production of "Marat/Sade" received the Tony Award for Best Play. Weiss died in 1982. CHRISTOPHER LEVENSON is a prominent Canadian poet. He was the co-founder of Arc Magazine and of the Harbinger Poets imprint of Carleton University Press.