Cover: The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem, 1932–1940, from Harvard University PressCover: The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem, 1932–1940 in PAPERBACK

The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem, 1932–1940

Edited by Gershom Scholem

Translated by Gary Smith

Andre LeFevere

Introduction by Anson Rabinbach

Product Details

PAPERBACK

Print on Demand

$38.00 • £33.95 • €34.95

ISBN 9780674174153

Publication Date: 03/01/1992

Academic Trade

320 pages

6-1/8 x 9-1/4 inches

World rights except United Kingdom & Commonwealth

Add to Cart

Media Requests:

Related Subjects

The relationship between Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem is surely one of the extraordinary friendships of the twentieth century. It is not only that each—Benjamin as critic, Scholem as historian—was an innovative thinker of the first order, transforming the intellectual horizons of his field, or that they wrestled for twenty-five years over intellectual and spiritual issues that still seem urgent. It is also that, on a human level, the moral fiber of their friendship proved so tough and so resilient despite their drastically divergent paths, and despite the most soul-trying historical circumstances… The letters of Benjamin and Scholem are written out of a loneliness stoically sustained—not quite isolation, but the solitariness of genius pursuing its own way against the grain of the times, making ‘radical demands’ that political reality would not meet.—Robert Alter, The New Republic

An immense sadness shadows even the more informal and momentarily optimistic of these letters. They were sent as Europe went into nightmare… And yet this is, in its own way, a book of rejoicing. It celebrates the elixir of intellectual passion—the capacity of the human mind and nervous system to plunge into abstract speculative interests even in, or most particularly in, the face of personal adversity and sorrow.—George Steiner, The New Yorker

Recent News

Black lives matter. Black voices matter. A statement from HUP »

From Our Blog

Jacket: Iron and Blood: A Military History of the German-Speaking Peoples since 1500, by Peter Wilson, from Harvard University Press

A Lesson in German Military History with Peter Wilson

In his landmark book Iron and Blood: A Military History of the German-Speaking Peoples since 1500, acclaimed historian Peter H. Wilson offers a masterful reappraisal of German militarism and warfighting over the last five centuries, leading to the rise of Prussia and the world wars. Below, Wilson answers our questions about this complex history,