A generation of outstanding European thinkers emerged out of the
rubble of World War II. It was a group unparalleled in their
probing of an age that had produced totalitarianism as a political
norm, and the Holocaust as its supreme nightmarish achievement.
Figures ranging from George Lichtheim, Ignazio Silone, Raymond
Aron, Andrei Amalrik, among many others, found a home in
"Encounter." None stood taller or saw further than Francois Bondy
of Zurich. In a moving tribute to his friend, Melvin J. Lasky,
long- time editor of "Encounter," writes, "Bondy was a breathtaking
spectacle. I had known him to read and walk, to think and talk, all
at once--and still make mental notes for his next article.... Early
or late, seated or standing, awake or asleep, his incomparable
spiritedness would always be darting from point to point, paying
attention and idly wandering at once. Taken all in all, he still
continues to represent for me perhaps a Henry Jamesian "New Man.""
Bondy's essays themselves represent a broad sweep of major figures
and events in the second half of the twentieth century. His spatial
outreach went from Budapest to Tokyo and Paris. His political
essays extended from George Kennan to Benito Mussolini. And his
prime mutier, the cultural figures of Europe, covered Sartre,
Kafka, Heidegger and Milosz. The analysis was uniformly fair minded
but unstinting in its insights. Taken together, the variegated
themes he raised in his work as a Zurich journalist, a Paris
editor, and a European "homme de letres" sketch guidelines for an
entrancing portrait of the intellectual as cosmopolitan. "European
Notebooks" contains most of the articles that Bondy (1915-2003)
wrote for "Encounter" under the stewardship of Stephen Spender,
Irving Kristol, and then for the thirty years that Melvin Lasky
served as editor. Bondy was that rare unattached intellectual,
"free of every totalitarian temptation" and, as Lasky notes,
unfailing in his devotion to the liberties and civilities of a
humane social order. "European Notebooks" offers a window into a
civilization that came to maturity during the period in which these
essays were written.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
