Paulo Roberto de Almeida
Will Durant’s Lost Final Book to Be Published
JENNIFER SCHUESSLER
The New York Times, April 3, 2014
Will and Ariel Durant’s 11-part series, “The Story of Civilization,” published between 1935 and 1975, sold millions of copies and turned the couple into household names (though Ariel was not credited as a coauthor until Volume 7).
And now, in December, 33 years after the Durants died within weeks of each other in 1981, Simon & Schuster will be bringing out Will Durant’s lost final book, “Fallen Leaves: Last Words on Life, Love, War and God.”
Durant mentioned it several times in interviews in the 1970s, once calling it “a not very serious book which answers the questions of what I think about government, life, death, God.” But the whereabouts of the manuscript were unknown before it was found in a box in his granddaughter’s attic last year.
In their heyday the Durants, who were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction in 1968 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977, won praise for their sweeping, highly readable distillation of 110 centuries of human thought and endeavor, even as some academic historians dismissed them as presenting a simplified, overly sunny great-man view.
“The Story of Civilization” remains in print only in e-book form. But Thomas LeBien, a vice president and senior editor who acquired the book for Simon & Schuster, said in an interview that “Fallen Leaves” offered the same pleasures he recalled from dipping into those volumes as a child. “Durant remains relevant precisely because history as a guide to past and present remains as relevant as ever,” he said.
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From Amazon site:
And now, in December, 33 years after the Durants died within weeks of each other in 1981, Simon & Schuster will be bringing out Will Durant’s lost final book, “Fallen Leaves: Last Words on Life, Love, War and God.”
Durant mentioned it several times in interviews in the 1970s, once calling it “a not very serious book which answers the questions of what I think about government, life, death, God.” But the whereabouts of the manuscript were unknown before it was found in a box in his granddaughter’s attic last year.
In their heyday the Durants, who were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction in 1968 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977, won praise for their sweeping, highly readable distillation of 110 centuries of human thought and endeavor, even as some academic historians dismissed them as presenting a simplified, overly sunny great-man view.
“The Story of Civilization” remains in print only in e-book form. But Thomas LeBien, a vice president and senior editor who acquired the book for Simon & Schuster, said in an interview that “Fallen Leaves” offered the same pleasures he recalled from dipping into those volumes as a child. “Durant remains relevant precisely because history as a guide to past and present remains as relevant as ever,” he said.
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From Amazon site:
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Book Description
The final and most personal work from Pulitzer Prize–winning author and historian Will Durant—discovered thirty-two years after his death—is a message of insight for everyone who has sought meaning in life or the council of a wise friend in navigating life’s journey.
From 1968 to 1978, Will Durant made four public allusions to the existence of Fallen Leaves. One, in 1975, hinted at its contents: “a not very serious book that answers the questions of what I think about government, life, death, and God.” And in 1975: “I propose…to answer all the important questions, simply, fairly, and imperfectly.” Even into his nineties, he worked on the book daily, writing it out on legal notepads. On his death in 1981, no one, not even the Durant heirs, knew if he had completed it, or even if it still existed. Thirty-two years later, in a granddaughter’s attic trunk, the manuscript was discovered.
Fallen Leaves is Will Durant’s most personal book. It is precisely as he described: twenty-two short chapters on everything from youth and old age, religion and morals, to sex, war, politics, and art. The culmination of Will Durant’s sixty-plus years spent researching the philosophies, religions, arts, sciences, and civilizations from across the world, Fallen Leaves is the distilled wisdom of a gifted scholar with a renowned talent for rendering the insights of the past accessible. In its preface Durant mentions that over the course of his career he received letters from “curious readers who have challenged me to speak my mind on the timeless questions of human life and fate.” With Fallen Leaves he accepted their challenge. It contains strong opinions, elegant prose, and deep insights into the human condition as only Will Durant could provide, as well as his revealing conclusions about the perennial problems and greatest joys we face as a species.
From 1968 to 1978, Will Durant made four public allusions to the existence of Fallen Leaves. One, in 1975, hinted at its contents: “a not very serious book that answers the questions of what I think about government, life, death, and God.” And in 1975: “I propose…to answer all the important questions, simply, fairly, and imperfectly.” Even into his nineties, he worked on the book daily, writing it out on legal notepads. On his death in 1981, no one, not even the Durant heirs, knew if he had completed it, or even if it still existed. Thirty-two years later, in a granddaughter’s attic trunk, the manuscript was discovered.
Fallen Leaves is Will Durant’s most personal book. It is precisely as he described: twenty-two short chapters on everything from youth and old age, religion and morals, to sex, war, politics, and art. The culmination of Will Durant’s sixty-plus years spent researching the philosophies, religions, arts, sciences, and civilizations from across the world, Fallen Leaves is the distilled wisdom of a gifted scholar with a renowned talent for rendering the insights of the past accessible. In its preface Durant mentions that over the course of his career he received letters from “curious readers who have challenged me to speak my mind on the timeless questions of human life and fate.” With Fallen Leaves he accepted their challenge. It contains strong opinions, elegant prose, and deep insights into the human condition as only Will Durant could provide, as well as his revealing conclusions about the perennial problems and greatest joys we face as a species.
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