Isaiah Berlin: Letters 1928-1946 (v. 1) [Hardcover]

Isaiah Berlin (Author), Henry Hardy (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 4, 2004

Isaiah Berlin is one of the towering intellectual figures of the twentieth century, the most famous English thinker of the post-war era, and the focus of growing interest and discussion. Above all, he is one of the best modern exponents of the disappearing art of letter-writing. 'Life is not worth living unless one can be indiscreet to intimate friends,' wrote Berlin to a correspondent. This first volume inaugurates a long awaited edition of his letters that might well adopt this remark as an epigraph. Berlin's life was well worth living, both for himself and for the world. Fortunately he said a great deal to his friends on paper as well as in person. Berlin's letters reveal the significant growth and development of his personality and career over the two decades covered within them. Starting with his days as an eighteen year old student at St. Paul's School in London, they cover his years at Oxford as scholar and professor and the authorship of his famous biography of Karl Marx. The letters progress to his World War II stay in the U.S. and finally, his trip to the Soviet Union in 1945-6 and return to Oxford in 1946. "Emotional exploitation, cannibalism, which I think I dislike more than anything else in the world." To Ben Nicolson, September 1937 "Valery delivered an agreeable but dull lecture here. He said words were like thin planks over precipices, and if you crossed rapidly nothing happened, but if you stopped on any of them and stared into the gulf you would get vertigo and that was what philosophers were doing." To Cressida Bonham Carter, March 1939 "I never don't moralize." To Mary Fisher, 18 April 1940 "I only feel happy when I feel the solidarity of the majority of people I respect with and behind me." To Marion Frankfurter, 23 August 1940 "Certainly no politics are more real than those of academic life, no loves deeper, no hatreds more burning, no principles more sacred." To Freya Stark, 12 June 1944 "Nobody is so fiercely bureaucratic, or so stern with soldiers and regular civil servants, as the don disguised as temporary government official armed with an indestructible superiority complex." To Freya Stark, 12 June 1944 "My view on this is that you will not find life in the country lively enough for persons of your temperament. Life in the country in England depends entirely on (a) motor cars (b) rural tastes. As you possess neither, it is my considered view that apart from a weekend cottage or something of that sort, life in the country would bore you stiff within a very short time." To his parents, 31 January 1944 "This country is undoubtedly the largest assembly of fundamentally benevolent human beings ever gathered together, but the thought of staying here remains a nightmare." To his parents, 31 January 1944 "I am a hopeless dilettante about matters of fact really and only good for a column of gossip, if that." To W. J. Turner, 12 June 1945 "England is an old chronic complaint: every day in the afternoon in the left knee and the left leg below the kneecap, tiresome, annoying, not bad enough to go to bed with, probably incurable and madly irritating but not necessarily unlikely to lead to a really serious crisis unless complications set in." To Angus Malcolm, 20 February 1946

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This first selected volume of the celebrated philosopher's prodigious correspondence reveals an intimately charming "Shaya" (as he familiarly signed himself) to match the erudite Oxford don and brilliant conversationalist. The two decades covered here take the Baltic-born Berlin (1909–1997) from his adopted homeland of England, where he wholeheartedly assimilated himself in the scholarly world, to diplomatic postings in wartime Washington, D.C., and Soviet Russia on the eve of the Cold War; he also reports from holidays and tours in Austria, Italy and Palestine during the mounting tensions in the 1930s. Throughout, the facets of Berlin's character scintillate, whether indulging in Bridesheadesque banter with fellow philosophers J.L. Austin and A.J. Ayer; critiquing Tolstoy and Henry James with Stephen Spender and Elizabeth Bowen; debating Zionism with Jewish grandees Felix Frankfurter and Victor Rothschild; or reassuring his parents about his health. Despite the sheer number of letters, there are gaps in the biographic record, including, disappointingly, his watershed stay in Leningrad in 1945–1946. With Berlin's sizable social circles, penchant for name-dropping and ubiquitous scholarly allusions, Hardy's numerous footnotes are indispensable (and sometimes wryly amusing). Likewise, his choice of supplementary material, from interviews to Berlin's early school essay on freedom, enriches a collection already overflowing with Berlin's favorite subjects: intellectual insights and indiscreet gossip. 75 photos, and maps not seen by PW.
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Review

"Meticulously edited and ably annotated by the indefatigable Hardy, this first installment of a projected three-volume set of correspondence provides an indispensable window into the soul and mind of one of the 20th century's most notable intellectual figures. Highly recommended." H.I. Einsohn, Middlesex Community College, Choice

"Most of us will never have the pleasure of receiving such fine letters, especially after what Hardy labels 'the e-change,' but this wonderful book allows us to read, with delight, over the shoulders of those who did." Mark Kingwell, University of Toronto, author of Catch & Release

"This first selected volume of the celebrated philosopher's prodigious correspondence reveals an intimately charming 'Shaya' (as he familiarly signed himself) to match the erudite Oxford don and brilliant conversationalist. With Berlin's sizable social circles, penchant for name-dropping and ubiquitous scholarly illusions, Hardy's numerous footnotes are indispensable (and sometimes wryly amusing). Likewise, his choice of supplementary material, from interviews to Berlin's early school essay on freedom, enriches a collection alreadly overflowing with Berlin's favorite subjects: intellectual insights and indiscreet gossip." Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Isaiah Berlin was one of the great letter writers of the twentieth century, witty, indiscreet, passionate, wise and unbuttoned. He also lived through extraordinary moments of 20th century history, and these letters capture these moments: Nazi brown shirts in Austrian cafes in the 1930's, German refugees in Jerusalem, the debates at All Souls about the war, Washington during the height of the Churchill-Roosevelt alliance. In Henry Hardy, Berlin has found an ideal editor: scrupulous, self-effacing, dogged and tenaciously accurate. The result is one of the great editing achievements in modern letters." Michael Ignatieff, author of Isaiah Berlin: A Life

"I find Isaiah Berlin's letters fascinating and cannot bear to put the book down. What a brilliant correspondent he was! And how superbly annotated and edited the book is!" Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Literature and the National Book Award

"A fascinating record of an inexhaustibly rich life. Berlin's collected letters give an unsurpassed insight into the mind of one of the twentieth century's great liberal thinkers--and a unique perspective on the twentieth century itself." John Gray, London School of Economics

"... a great act of reclamation." Financial Times

"Isaiah Berlin had a genius for friendship and a huge personal appeal that communicates itself in print; and 'Letters, 1928-1946' is compulsive reading..." The New York Times Book Review

"Most of us will never have the pleasure of receiving such fine letters, especially after what Hardy labels "the e-change, but this wonderful book allows us to read, with delight, over the shoulders that did." Globe and Mail

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 752 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; First Edition edition (June 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 052183368X
• ISBN-13: 978-0521833684
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 2.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,313,590 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic collection of Berlin's early letters, August 8, 2004

By 

Mark Klobas (Tempe, AZ, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Isaiah Berlin: Letters 1928-1946 (v. 1) (Hardcover)

Few philosophers in the twentieth century have had more of an impact on their times than Isaiah Berlin. Born in Russia in 1909, he immigrated to Great Britain with his family in 1921, where he went on to a fantastically successful academic career, first at New College, Oxford, then as a fellow of All Souls. His burgeoning career as a young philosopher (during which time he wrote his excellent short biography of Karl Marx) was put on hold by the Second World War. Though initially destined for the Soviet Union, he ended up in the United States, where he wrote weekly surveys of American politics that were unmatched for their insights and still reward reading.

Berlin's insights were not just reserved for his superiors in London, though, as they infused his correspondence with his family and friends. This book, the first of three projected volumes, collects the letters he wrote during these early years, giving us a unique view of the man and his times. The Isaiah Berlin we see in these pages is witty and perceptive, not just about the people he encountered but about himself. His pride in his identity as a Jew is also apparent, and the letters chronicle his interaction with the flourishing Zionist movement of the 1940s as well as his involvement in academics and his work for the British embassy.

Berlin's erudition also is evident in these pages, as is his penchant for name-dropping. Navigating through the people and places he writes about is a monumental task, and one that the editor, Henry Hardy, performs admirably. His footnotes provide an indispensable guide to the letters, vastly increasing the reader's understanding of Berlin's activities and encounters. The result is a work that offers a window into life in interwar Britain, the politics of wartime America, and the life of a great intellectual who lived in the world rather than apart from it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 700 Pages of Irrepressible Isaiah Berlin, June 24, 2004

By 

Ronald H. Clark (WASHINGTON, DC USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Isaiah Berlin: Letters 1928-1946 (v. 1) (Hardcover)

If you are interested in Isaiah Berlin, and in understanding his roots and evolution, this is the book for you. These letters cover the period of 1928-1946, and deal with some very fascinating topics such as Oxford in the 1930's, Berlin's service in Washington and New York during World War II, and a cast of well known British, Continental and American characters. The collection is immeasurably enhanced by yet another superb job of editing by Henry Hardy, including an extended preface, extensive notes and a biographical directory which save the American reader from becoming too lost. But Berlin being Berlin, the letters are sometimes overly long, may deal with mundate topics, can be maddeningly repetitive, or lose one in the intricacies of Oxford and the academic life. Berlin is absolutely unrestrained in his comments, both pro and con, since these were meant to be private letters, and his views of some fellow academics can be devastating. However, he can positively support some individuals, such as H.L.A. Hart whose initial appointment as Fellow and Philosophy Tutor at New College Berlin strongly advocated. The book is dedicated to Hart's wife who provided indispensable assistance to Hardy in putting all this material together. As the letters illustrate, Berlin's prolonged struggle in writing his book on Karl Marx goes a long way toward explaining why his book output was so limited and he preferred to express his thinking in essays. This first volume concludes when Berlin is 37 and has returned to Oxford. By this point in the letters, one begins to have a very solid grasp of Berlin's character, interests, interactions, and ambitions. "Berlin on Berlin" is beyond question the best way to come to know and understand him.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hedgehog, fox, March 25, 2005

By 

John C. Landon "nemonemini" (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Isaiah Berlin: Letters 1928-1946 (v. 1) (Hardcover)

"Life is not worth living unless one can be indiscrete to intimate friends', opines the remarkable Berlin in this collection of his early letters. Isaiah Berlin is one of the most engaging figures of twentieth century letters, and this early first volume stretches from his school years, through to his classic work on Marx, thence the war, and subsequent Cold War. Berlin the witty conversationalist manifests in these epistolations, with their colorful background amidst ominous political events of high drama.