Fallen Leaves: Last Words on Life, Love, War, and God
By Will Durant
Fallen Leaves is the culmination of Will Durant’s sixty-plus years spent researching the philosophies, religions, arts, sciences, and civilizations worldwide. It is the distilled wisdom of one of the world’s greatest minds, a man with a renowned talent for rendering the insights of the past accessible. Throughout Durant’s career, he received numerous letters from “curious readers who have challenged me to speak my mind on the timeless questions of human life and fate.”
With Fallen Leaves, his final book, he finally accepted their challenge. In twenty-two short chapters, Durant addresses everything from youth and old age to religion, morals, sex, war, politics, and art. Fallen Leaves is “a thought-provoking array of opinions” (Publishers Weekly), offering elegant prose and deep insights. Durant reveals conclusions about the perennial problems and greatest joys we face as a species. In Durant’s singular voice, here is a message of insight for everyone seeking meaning in life or the counsel of a learned friend while navigating life’s journey.
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Will Durant
William James Durant ( November 5, 1885 – November 7, 1981) was an American writer, historian, and philosopher.
Biography.
He is best known for The Story of Civilization, 11 volumes written in collaboration with his wife, Ariel Durant, and published between 1935 and 1975. He was earlier noted for The Story of Philosophy (1924), described as “a groundbreaking work that helped to popularize philosophy”. He conceived philosophy as total perspective, or seeing things sub-specie totius, a phrase inspired by Spinoza’s sub-specie aeternitatis.
He sought to unify and humanize the great body of historical knowledge, which had grown voluminous and become fragmented into esoteric specialities, and to vitalize it for contemporary application. Will and Ariel Durant were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1968 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977.
Will Durant
