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A Dual Autobiography
In this readable autobiography by the authors of The Story of Civilization, Will & Ariel Durant celebrate & examine a lifetime of ideas, friendships, triumphs & love. The story of their life together, rich in anecdotes & with the countless famous people they knew, is a passionate record of their shared experience as lovers, as spouses, as world travelers & as the authors of one of the most famous successful works of scholarship in American literary history. Ariel & Will met & fell in love in 1912. He taught at New York's anarchist Ferrer Center, a young man already in love with the world of ideas, who had quit seminary to his family's chagrin in search of freedom. She was 14, so young that she roller-skated on her way to City Hall for her marriage, the daughter of penniless immigrants struggling to survive in the New World, inheritor of all the rebellious traditions & the determination to survive of the Russian ghetto from which her family came. Together they shared not only a burning love for each other but a hunger for ideas. Their book follows their intellectual journey, beginning with their interest in anarchism (which brought them close to Emma Goldman & Alexander Berkman) & going on thru a long, shared lifetime that brought them honors, fame & acquaintance with almost every major literary & intellectual personality in Europe & the USA. Their book is frank & moving, at once a star-studded history of the decades thru which they lived & worked & an intimate tribute to an enduring love.
420 pages, Hardcover
First published November 15, 1977
11 people are currently reading
319 people want to read
About the author
Will Durant
792 books3,050 followersWilliam James Durant was a prolific American writer, historian, and philosopher. He is best known for the 11-volume The Story of Civilization, written in collaboration with his wife Ariel and published between 1935 and 1975. He was earlier noted for his book, The Story of Philosophy, written in 1926, which was considered "a groundbreaking work that helped to popularize philosophy."
They were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1967 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977.
They were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1967 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 9, 2012
I recently completed The Life of Greece, the second volume of The Story of Civilization. While writing my review, I decided to create a Will Durant shelf on my Goodreads page. Before I die, I will finish The Story of Civilization.
This is the first book by Will Durant that I ever completed. In April, 2001, I was in the midst of his first volume in The Story of Civilization series. (More about that in my next review.) I had attempted to study history in college, but being a lazy student in those days, I would get bored. From my college texts it seemed that history was just a list of rulers and wars. I could not see how it was helping me to understand the world. Later in life I actually learned how to study by looking up the words I did not know in a dictionary, using a globe and an atlas to find locations geographically, and taking the time to ponder how I could use what I was studying in life. When I heard that Will Durant wrote books about history and philosophy (another subject that baffled me in college) with the aim of making them accessible to lay readers, I got curious.
So while making my way through Our Oriental Heritage, I discovered this autobiography of Will and his wife Ariel. Will Durant began his education studying religion, because his mother wanted him to be a priest. Like many people, not being really sure what he wanted to do or be in life, he tried to please his mother and dutifully entered the seminary after college. But his real passion lay in history and philosophy. In his autobiography he relates how the study of history and philosophy led to the loss of his religious beliefs. (More about that later as well.)
He became a teacher instead and in 1926 published a book called The Story of Philosophy. (I have read about three quarters of that one and it DID open up the mysteries of philosophy for me.) The book was a surprising bestseller and led Durant into a career as a traveling lecturer. He went all over the country, mostly by train, giving talks to many types of groups and continued to do this for most of the rest of his life. He was like a rock star of history. Between tours, he would travel the world, visiting the countries and historical sites about which he was writing; then he would go home and organize his data into books.
Back when he was still a teacher he met and married one of his students, Ariel, who was only 14 at the time! More rock star behavior. Wasn't it Jerry Lee Lewis who married a child bride? But also perhaps evidence of how deeply involved in history Durant was. Back in ancient times, plenty of women married when they were 14. Ariel became his devoted helper and by the seventh volume of The Story of Civilization, he gave her equal authorial billing.
Here is what I had to say in April 2001 when I finished A Dual Autobiography:
"I just spent almost a week of my life reading this book. It was utterly fascinating to me. Will Durant was a lover of philosophy and history. I can't even imagine how many books he must have read.
He devoted his life to writing about philosophy and history so that the common literate man could learn it, understand it, and hopefully learn from it, therefore becoming able to assist in building a lasting civilization.
I have found a new hero. I would like to read all his books, though it would take me so long. I wish I could have known him."
Yes, I was right. It is taking me years and years to get through his books. But every hour spent has turned out to be worth it.
This is the first book by Will Durant that I ever completed. In April, 2001, I was in the midst of his first volume in The Story of Civilization series. (More about that in my next review.) I had attempted to study history in college, but being a lazy student in those days, I would get bored. From my college texts it seemed that history was just a list of rulers and wars. I could not see how it was helping me to understand the world. Later in life I actually learned how to study by looking up the words I did not know in a dictionary, using a globe and an atlas to find locations geographically, and taking the time to ponder how I could use what I was studying in life. When I heard that Will Durant wrote books about history and philosophy (another subject that baffled me in college) with the aim of making them accessible to lay readers, I got curious.
So while making my way through Our Oriental Heritage, I discovered this autobiography of Will and his wife Ariel. Will Durant began his education studying religion, because his mother wanted him to be a priest. Like many people, not being really sure what he wanted to do or be in life, he tried to please his mother and dutifully entered the seminary after college. But his real passion lay in history and philosophy. In his autobiography he relates how the study of history and philosophy led to the loss of his religious beliefs. (More about that later as well.)
He became a teacher instead and in 1926 published a book called The Story of Philosophy. (I have read about three quarters of that one and it DID open up the mysteries of philosophy for me.) The book was a surprising bestseller and led Durant into a career as a traveling lecturer. He went all over the country, mostly by train, giving talks to many types of groups and continued to do this for most of the rest of his life. He was like a rock star of history. Between tours, he would travel the world, visiting the countries and historical sites about which he was writing; then he would go home and organize his data into books.
Back when he was still a teacher he met and married one of his students, Ariel, who was only 14 at the time! More rock star behavior. Wasn't it Jerry Lee Lewis who married a child bride? But also perhaps evidence of how deeply involved in history Durant was. Back in ancient times, plenty of women married when they were 14. Ariel became his devoted helper and by the seventh volume of The Story of Civilization, he gave her equal authorial billing.
Here is what I had to say in April 2001 when I finished A Dual Autobiography:
"I just spent almost a week of my life reading this book. It was utterly fascinating to me. Will Durant was a lover of philosophy and history. I can't even imagine how many books he must have read.
He devoted his life to writing about philosophy and history so that the common literate man could learn it, understand it, and hopefully learn from it, therefore becoming able to assist in building a lasting civilization.
I have found a new hero. I would like to read all his books, though it would take me so long. I wish I could have known him."
Yes, I was right. It is taking me years and years to get through his books. But every hour spent has turned out to be worth it.
March 14, 2008
Will and Ariel Durant: A Dual Autobiography (1977)
When Will was less than twenty years old he made lists of literature and people. The writing process and the people who wrote were always a passion of his. He carried this passion for individuals’ achievements into all fields of endeavor from artists and Popes to generals and kings and scientists. He had his own special talent for finding words to express himself, such as, “the difference between man and the gorilla is largely a matter of trousers and words.” (p. 32)
He was early captivated by social utopias (while reading Bellamy’s 1888 Looking Backward) and social justice (while reading Sinclair’s 1906 The Jungle). He even considered a plan to become a priest in order to lead the Catholic Church in support of socialism (pp. 32-25). Then he came across the work of Spinoza which changed his life (p. 36).
Ariel observed his meticulous preparation for his lectures at the Labor Temple in Manhattan from 1914 to 1927 to audiences, largely, of uneducated immigrants. She noted how “he was compelled to be clear, to humanize his material with vignettes of creative personalities, and to bring it into some connection with current affairs,” that this was “the happy compulsion that forged the order and clarity of his later exposition and style.” (p. 59) I most heartily reaffirm this observation as I’ve found Will Durant’s style to be one of the most comfortable to read of anything I’ve ever come across.
It was in 1916 and 1917, while living in the Bronx, that Will wrote his first book, Philosophy and the Social Problem, his doctoral dissertation. Will described one of his theses in this book, the social problem, as “narrowing the gap between our moral ideals of humanity and justice and the biological realities of human nature, economic greed, political corruption, and aggressive war—had elicited only superficial or impracticable proposals because it had been approached without a scientific study of needs and means, and without a philosophical grasp and reconciliation of desires and needs.” (p. 72)
Ariel described the period from May, 1919, to May, 1926, as the “seven fat years” when she gave birth to their daughter Ethel and Will gave birth to his best selling The Story of Philosophy (p. 81). The book was such a smashing success, when published in May, 1926, that Will finally felt the royalties were sufficient to quit his Labor Temple lectures and devote the rest of his life to The Story of Civilization. Ariel insists that when Will took this step he asked for her cooperation and help in organization, research, and ideas. She replied, “I pledged them. Our love was renewed, and our lives became one.” (pp. 108-109)
Ever since Will wrote a paper in 1917 on “the Writing of History,” he observed that “whereas economic life, politics, religion, morals and manners, science, philosophy, literature, and art had all moved contemporaneously, and in mutual influence, in each epoch of each civilization, historians had recorded each aspect in almost complete separation from the rest.” (p. 138) Will rejected what he termed “shredded history” in favor of an “integral history” which is what The Story of Civilization was to become (p. 139).
He began his work on Volume 1 with a round the world tour on the S.S. Franconia leaving New York January 11, 1930. “We laid out some eighteen thousand dollars for two staterooms—one for Ethel, one for Ariel and me and two hundred books on the history and civilization of Asia.” (p. 140)
Upon returning from the cruise, Will prepared a little book On the Meaning of Life published September, 1932. “The secret of significance and content is to have a task which consumes all one’s energies, lifts the individual out of himself, and makes human life a little richer than before.” (pp. 168, 171)
Ariel was amazed at how important the organization of a book was. Will would write his notes on slips of paper that needed to be classified according to his chapter outline before he could meld them into a cohesive and flowing narrative, i.e., around thirty thousand slips of paper per volume. Ariel noted that “all in all, the gathering of the material for Volume I took two years; the classification, one year; the writing and rewriting (in longhand), and the typing, two years; the printing, proofreading, and illustration, one year.” (p. 179)
One of Will’s pet ideas, dating back to at least 1917, was to relieve his frustration at the incompetence of government. He felt that universities should give as much attention to forming governmental administrators as to preparing men for the practice of medicine or law (virtually the same as the complaints of Robert Brookings for whom the Brookings Institution is named) and that a U.S. Civil Academy should be set up. A Congressman introduced such a bill in 1936 and the proposal dropped dead (p. 198)
Will admits that the objective of his writings “has been not to add to knowledge, but to promote better and wider understanding of existing knowledge.” (p. 306)
When Will recounted his affectionate correspondence with a Jesuit priest who could never agree with Will’s agnosticism, he observed that “If a man is good, differences of ideology should be no bar to friendship.” (p. 336) This message exactly corresponds to a story my father once told me about his father and a neighbor of his during the World War I years in Lietuva.
When Will was less than twenty years old he made lists of literature and people. The writing process and the people who wrote were always a passion of his. He carried this passion for individuals’ achievements into all fields of endeavor from artists and Popes to generals and kings and scientists. He had his own special talent for finding words to express himself, such as, “the difference between man and the gorilla is largely a matter of trousers and words.” (p. 32)
He was early captivated by social utopias (while reading Bellamy’s 1888 Looking Backward) and social justice (while reading Sinclair’s 1906 The Jungle). He even considered a plan to become a priest in order to lead the Catholic Church in support of socialism (pp. 32-25). Then he came across the work of Spinoza which changed his life (p. 36).
Ariel observed his meticulous preparation for his lectures at the Labor Temple in Manhattan from 1914 to 1927 to audiences, largely, of uneducated immigrants. She noted how “he was compelled to be clear, to humanize his material with vignettes of creative personalities, and to bring it into some connection with current affairs,” that this was “the happy compulsion that forged the order and clarity of his later exposition and style.” (p. 59) I most heartily reaffirm this observation as I’ve found Will Durant’s style to be one of the most comfortable to read of anything I’ve ever come across.
It was in 1916 and 1917, while living in the Bronx, that Will wrote his first book, Philosophy and the Social Problem, his doctoral dissertation. Will described one of his theses in this book, the social problem, as “narrowing the gap between our moral ideals of humanity and justice and the biological realities of human nature, economic greed, political corruption, and aggressive war—had elicited only superficial or impracticable proposals because it had been approached without a scientific study of needs and means, and without a philosophical grasp and reconciliation of desires and needs.” (p. 72)
Ariel described the period from May, 1919, to May, 1926, as the “seven fat years” when she gave birth to their daughter Ethel and Will gave birth to his best selling The Story of Philosophy (p. 81). The book was such a smashing success, when published in May, 1926, that Will finally felt the royalties were sufficient to quit his Labor Temple lectures and devote the rest of his life to The Story of Civilization. Ariel insists that when Will took this step he asked for her cooperation and help in organization, research, and ideas. She replied, “I pledged them. Our love was renewed, and our lives became one.” (pp. 108-109)
Ever since Will wrote a paper in 1917 on “the Writing of History,” he observed that “whereas economic life, politics, religion, morals and manners, science, philosophy, literature, and art had all moved contemporaneously, and in mutual influence, in each epoch of each civilization, historians had recorded each aspect in almost complete separation from the rest.” (p. 138) Will rejected what he termed “shredded history” in favor of an “integral history” which is what The Story of Civilization was to become (p. 139).
He began his work on Volume 1 with a round the world tour on the S.S. Franconia leaving New York January 11, 1930. “We laid out some eighteen thousand dollars for two staterooms—one for Ethel, one for Ariel and me and two hundred books on the history and civilization of Asia.” (p. 140)
Upon returning from the cruise, Will prepared a little book On the Meaning of Life published September, 1932. “The secret of significance and content is to have a task which consumes all one’s energies, lifts the individual out of himself, and makes human life a little richer than before.” (pp. 168, 171)
Ariel was amazed at how important the organization of a book was. Will would write his notes on slips of paper that needed to be classified according to his chapter outline before he could meld them into a cohesive and flowing narrative, i.e., around thirty thousand slips of paper per volume. Ariel noted that “all in all, the gathering of the material for Volume I took two years; the classification, one year; the writing and rewriting (in longhand), and the typing, two years; the printing, proofreading, and illustration, one year.” (p. 179)
One of Will’s pet ideas, dating back to at least 1917, was to relieve his frustration at the incompetence of government. He felt that universities should give as much attention to forming governmental administrators as to preparing men for the practice of medicine or law (virtually the same as the complaints of Robert Brookings for whom the Brookings Institution is named) and that a U.S. Civil Academy should be set up. A Congressman introduced such a bill in 1936 and the proposal dropped dead (p. 198)
Will admits that the objective of his writings “has been not to add to knowledge, but to promote better and wider understanding of existing knowledge.” (p. 306)
When Will recounted his affectionate correspondence with a Jesuit priest who could never agree with Will’s agnosticism, he observed that “If a man is good, differences of ideology should be no bar to friendship.” (p. 336) This message exactly corresponds to a story my father once told me about his father and a neighbor of his during the World War I years in Lietuva.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 4, 2017
The first third of this 'dual autobiography' was interesting. While Will came from rather pedestrian middle class American roots, Ariel came over as a child, as an Eastern European Jewish child, and was raised in poverty in New York City. Then, by chance, she was admitted to a progressive school, fell in love with Will, one of her teachers, at the age of fourteen and together, after his resignation from the school, lived amidst the Bohemian subculture of early 20th century New York, she tending toward anarchism, he toward socialism.
The rest of the book, as a function of his increasing success as a writer and lecturer, becomes progressively less interesting. Yes, they met many famous people, and, yes, they made many tours of the world, but mostly Europe, together, but there's little depth to it, indeed, it's virtually a chronology which eventually becomes focused on The Story of Civilization series up through 1977, at which time, the time of publication, they were still both alive.
Rather than being coauthored, the text is divided between sections written by one or the other. This becomes blurred, however, in that both of them present extracts of letters written by the other, letters which too often are rather ordinary. Thus one hears a lot of speaking tour stops, with little substance in many cases, and of health problems and of family milestones. Will, we learn, was much given to the nostrums of Dr. Kellog, having daily enemas and practicing a fitful vegetarianism.--There's altogether too much of this.
Still, criticism of this exercise aside, I strongly recommend Will's Mansions of and Story of Philosophy as good introductions to that side of, mostly, Western culture and their joint endeavor attempting to cover the whole of human culture, the eleven volumes of The Story of Civilization and its supplement, The Lessons of History. However boring as recounted in this autobiography, their lives were certainly well spent.
The rest of the book, as a function of his increasing success as a writer and lecturer, becomes progressively less interesting. Yes, they met many famous people, and, yes, they made many tours of the world, but mostly Europe, together, but there's little depth to it, indeed, it's virtually a chronology which eventually becomes focused on The Story of Civilization series up through 1977, at which time, the time of publication, they were still both alive.
Rather than being coauthored, the text is divided between sections written by one or the other. This becomes blurred, however, in that both of them present extracts of letters written by the other, letters which too often are rather ordinary. Thus one hears a lot of speaking tour stops, with little substance in many cases, and of health problems and of family milestones. Will, we learn, was much given to the nostrums of Dr. Kellog, having daily enemas and practicing a fitful vegetarianism.--There's altogether too much of this.
Still, criticism of this exercise aside, I strongly recommend Will's Mansions of and Story of Philosophy as good introductions to that side of, mostly, Western culture and their joint endeavor attempting to cover the whole of human culture, the eleven volumes of The Story of Civilization and its supplement, The Lessons of History. However boring as recounted in this autobiography, their lives were certainly well spent.
September 16, 2009
I bought this book at a used book sale, because, reading the flyleaf I discovered that Ariel Durant was only 14 when she married Will Durant...and then they stayed married for 60-some years, and she collaborated with him on the later volumes of their famous work, The Story of Civilization. Fourteen years old! Even more - with her mother's permission! (This was in 1912, but still -- it was young for then, too.) I have not read any of The Story of Civilization, but hey, I've heard of it! And I have a volume of it somewhere; I also have The Story of Philosophy, pretty much the first book he wrote.
Update...Now I'm about 2/3 of the way through. I just keep plugging along, somewhat questioning WHY I am reading it. Each chapter is a year of their lives. They seemed to have kept every scrap of writing, every date book, every review of every book or lecture Will or Ariel gave (she gave a few). I'm up to 1946 now. Will is still (will he always be?) an ardent socialist, in favor of redistribution of wealth. Numbered in their close friends are the earliest advocates of birth-control, and Will & Ariel espouse that view as well. (Will he ever wake up to what havoc this has brought upon the world?). Will, contrary to the free-love beliefs of his earlier years, believes strongly in monogamy, as the glue which holds society together. And all this without God, somehow.
Update...Now I'm about 2/3 of the way through. I just keep plugging along, somewhat questioning WHY I am reading it. Each chapter is a year of their lives. They seemed to have kept every scrap of writing, every date book, every review of every book or lecture Will or Ariel gave (she gave a few). I'm up to 1946 now. Will is still (will he always be?) an ardent socialist, in favor of redistribution of wealth. Numbered in their close friends are the earliest advocates of birth-control, and Will & Ariel espouse that view as well. (Will he ever wake up to what havoc this has brought upon the world?). Will, contrary to the free-love beliefs of his earlier years, believes strongly in monogamy, as the glue which holds society together. And all this without God, somehow.
January 4, 2019
I've wanted to read this book for a long time. I originally picked it up at the Iliad Bookshop in L.A. in the late 1990s--which shows just how long I've been waiting. I thought I should wait until I'd finished the entire Story of Civilization series, but decided that getting halfway through was good enough. Anyone who can spend a lifetime producing the kind of massive work of popular history that the Durant's did interest me. This memoir impressed upon me just how interesting.
This was an interesting collaboration. Rather than a collaboration with a single blended voice, each writer wrote their own parts in their own voice, sometimes riffing off of the other, other times disagreeing. It was like witnessing a long marriage on the page. I thought Will the better writer of the two, but Ariel was more devilish, fun, and often had more interesting things to say.
Will's work ethic impressed me. In addition to researching and writing, he took countless lecture tours across the country to help support their travels. He could be on the road, in and out of trains, hotels, and lecture halls for a month at a time, all the while working away at his books.
The Durant's popularity also surprised me. Presidents, politicians, actors (Charlie Chaplin, for instance) were all acquaintances or friends.
I liked how they were up front about the criticism of their histories, particularly from academics. These were meant as popular histories, not works of academic scholarship. They were written as much for the joy of the author as the reader. But the Durants' presented many of these criticisms without getting defensive about them.
I was also fascinated to read about their extensive travels for research, and the methods they used for collecting, and organizing all of the material into something from which they could produce a book. They were good friends with the founders of Simon & Schuster and from what I can tell, a symbiotic relationship formed where each helped the other to be more successful.
The book was a joy to read, and more than ever, it made me want to finish The Story of Civilization. Only six more volumes to go!
This was an interesting collaboration. Rather than a collaboration with a single blended voice, each writer wrote their own parts in their own voice, sometimes riffing off of the other, other times disagreeing. It was like witnessing a long marriage on the page. I thought Will the better writer of the two, but Ariel was more devilish, fun, and often had more interesting things to say.
Will's work ethic impressed me. In addition to researching and writing, he took countless lecture tours across the country to help support their travels. He could be on the road, in and out of trains, hotels, and lecture halls for a month at a time, all the while working away at his books.
The Durant's popularity also surprised me. Presidents, politicians, actors (Charlie Chaplin, for instance) were all acquaintances or friends.
I liked how they were up front about the criticism of their histories, particularly from academics. These were meant as popular histories, not works of academic scholarship. They were written as much for the joy of the author as the reader. But the Durants' presented many of these criticisms without getting defensive about them.
I was also fascinated to read about their extensive travels for research, and the methods they used for collecting, and organizing all of the material into something from which they could produce a book. They were good friends with the founders of Simon & Schuster and from what I can tell, a symbiotic relationship formed where each helped the other to be more successful.
The book was a joy to read, and more than ever, it made me want to finish The Story of Civilization. Only six more volumes to go!
September 10, 2012
BEAUTIFUL! I fell in love with Will Durant and everything he writes.
July 15, 2020
In our family library my wife has an entire shelf of JK Rowling, and I keep an entire shelf dedicated to the Durants. What can I say? They're my favorite couple.
August 3, 2024
THE HISTORIANS OF CIVILIZATION TELL THEIR OWN STORIES
Will and Ariel Durant were awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1968 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977, primarily for the 11-volume series, "The Story of Civilization." Will Durant also wrote the earlier [1927] book, 'Transition: a Mental Autobiography,' which only covers his earlier life.
They wrote in the "Explanatory" section which precedes this 1977 book, "we have shamelessly reveled in reminiscing about our past, shady or glorious, and in gratefully commemorating the friends who brightened our days, or in sadly recalling those who have disappeared at the end of the path. We have tried to redeem our immodesty by giving the reader a fairly honest picture of a man and a woman... Each of us has revised and sanctioned the whole." (Pg. 9)
Will wrote in his diary in 1925 of sending his publisher an outline of 4 volumes of the history of European culture in the 19th century, and dryly observes, "Here I was, not yet delivered of The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers, and already conceiving four volumes more. No one has yet invented a literary contraceptive; authors are always pregnant, and are naturally swelled up." (Pg. 100)
He describes a 1927 debate he had with Clarence Darrow, saying, "I... gave the usual arguments for a vitalistic view... I ended with an explosion of sentimental poetry in which I finally identified myself with God. When Darrow's turn came he walked slowly to the podium, and began in his usual drawl, 'That is the worst poem I have ever heard.' Then, seeing me woefully deflated, and hurrying to heal my wound, he told the audience, 'I am sorry if I have hurt my friend. I would rather have written The Story of Philosophy than have done any of the things I have done in my life.' It was an absurd exaggeration, but I readily forgave it, and long treasured it." (Pg. 110) He quotes a newspaper comment on a 1927 debate [on "Is Democracy a Failure?"] he had with Bertrand Russell: "Mr. Russell is the author of a 'Principia Mathematica' which has probably sold 120 copies. Mr. Durant has written a 'Story of Philosophy' which is selling close to 200,000 copies. Yet Mr. Russell believes in the common people and Mr. Durant does not.'" (Pg. 118-119)
Will wrote a letter in 1947 to Ariel in which he said, "Sometimes I'm tempted to fly to you; and if you say the word I will. My book is not my first love; it can wait; life is better than literature. Perhaps the fact that this book is the hardest I've ever written tempts me to lay it down. The everlasting dilemma: to satisfy the scholars and scare away the reader, or to be easier on the reader and sacrifice thoroughness and scholarship..." (Pg. 257) In an 1965 letter, he said, "Now the evening is stealing down around my window... and the sweetest church bells I've ever heard are chiming some touching old Protestant hymns, one so beautiful that I cried out, in my silent cubicle, 'O God, how beautiful!' As Napoleon said, 'I become a believer again when the church bells ring.' But they soon stop, and the world proceeds on its agnostic way..." (Pg. 323)
Of his correspondence with a Jesuit priest, Will said, "The good father has continued to write to me... forgiving me one book after another, and still praying for my salvation. I have always answered him affectionately. If a man is good, differences of ideology should be no bar to friendship. Probably we are both wrong in our ideas and right in our feelings." (Pg. 336)
Those of us who have loved the Durants' other books will delight in this portrayal of their own lives.
Will and Ariel Durant were awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1968 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977, primarily for the 11-volume series, "The Story of Civilization." Will Durant also wrote the earlier [1927] book, 'Transition: a Mental Autobiography,' which only covers his earlier life.
They wrote in the "Explanatory" section which precedes this 1977 book, "we have shamelessly reveled in reminiscing about our past, shady or glorious, and in gratefully commemorating the friends who brightened our days, or in sadly recalling those who have disappeared at the end of the path. We have tried to redeem our immodesty by giving the reader a fairly honest picture of a man and a woman... Each of us has revised and sanctioned the whole." (Pg. 9)
Will wrote in his diary in 1925 of sending his publisher an outline of 4 volumes of the history of European culture in the 19th century, and dryly observes, "Here I was, not yet delivered of The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers, and already conceiving four volumes more. No one has yet invented a literary contraceptive; authors are always pregnant, and are naturally swelled up." (Pg. 100)
He describes a 1927 debate he had with Clarence Darrow, saying, "I... gave the usual arguments for a vitalistic view... I ended with an explosion of sentimental poetry in which I finally identified myself with God. When Darrow's turn came he walked slowly to the podium, and began in his usual drawl, 'That is the worst poem I have ever heard.' Then, seeing me woefully deflated, and hurrying to heal my wound, he told the audience, 'I am sorry if I have hurt my friend. I would rather have written The Story of Philosophy than have done any of the things I have done in my life.' It was an absurd exaggeration, but I readily forgave it, and long treasured it." (Pg. 110) He quotes a newspaper comment on a 1927 debate [on "Is Democracy a Failure?"] he had with Bertrand Russell: "Mr. Russell is the author of a 'Principia Mathematica' which has probably sold 120 copies. Mr. Durant has written a 'Story of Philosophy' which is selling close to 200,000 copies. Yet Mr. Russell believes in the common people and Mr. Durant does not.'" (Pg. 118-119)
Will wrote a letter in 1947 to Ariel in which he said, "Sometimes I'm tempted to fly to you; and if you say the word I will. My book is not my first love; it can wait; life is better than literature. Perhaps the fact that this book is the hardest I've ever written tempts me to lay it down. The everlasting dilemma: to satisfy the scholars and scare away the reader, or to be easier on the reader and sacrifice thoroughness and scholarship..." (Pg. 257) In an 1965 letter, he said, "Now the evening is stealing down around my window... and the sweetest church bells I've ever heard are chiming some touching old Protestant hymns, one so beautiful that I cried out, in my silent cubicle, 'O God, how beautiful!' As Napoleon said, 'I become a believer again when the church bells ring.' But they soon stop, and the world proceeds on its agnostic way..." (Pg. 323)
Of his correspondence with a Jesuit priest, Will said, "The good father has continued to write to me... forgiving me one book after another, and still praying for my salvation. I have always answered him affectionately. If a man is good, differences of ideology should be no bar to friendship. Probably we are both wrong in our ideas and right in our feelings." (Pg. 336)
Those of us who have loved the Durants' other books will delight in this portrayal of their own lives.
December 18, 2019
This autobiography is unusual in two respects; first it is a single autobiography of two people, Will and Ariel Durant, a long-married coupled who as their life's work researched and authored The Story of Civilization in eleven volumes, and second, it is to my mind a rather superficial autobiography. A substantial portion of the autobiography consist of reprints of reviews, of correspondence, and letters between Will and Auriel, most of which are from Will to Ariel; Ariel kept Will's correspondence, but he did not keep hers. Another major focus of the autobiography is a chronicle of their extensive travels. There is also a lot of name dropping and what strikes me as adulation of celebrities. On a more positive note, family and non-celebrity friends are seen as playing important roles in Will and Ariel's lives.
Whatever one thinks of this autobiography, Will and Ariel Durant were a truly remarkable couple who led full and interesting lives. I am in awe of their energy and stamina. I am in awe of their life's work. To have accomplished so much over the span of a lifetime is truly amazing.
In the interest of full disclosure, I am an admirer of The Story of Civilization and have read, been challenged by, and edified by each of the eleven volumes. These overviews of history with their emphasis on philosophy, literature, art, and biography rather than on politics and war speak to my own interests. Some academic historians have been hard on the Durant books as too general, not current, and as popularizations of history. Durant himself pled "guilty" to these charges; his audience, he wrote, was educated individuals wanting to know more of Western history and culture, and not scholars.
After reading the Dual Autobiography I know something more about the Durants as people, their lives, and some of their challenges, and I am grateful for that. Nonetheless, I cannot recommend this autobiography to the reader not already invested in the Durants' magnum opus. It's best seen as supplemental reading to those already familiar with and admirers of the Durants' work.
Whatever one thinks of this autobiography, Will and Ariel Durant were a truly remarkable couple who led full and interesting lives. I am in awe of their energy and stamina. I am in awe of their life's work. To have accomplished so much over the span of a lifetime is truly amazing.
In the interest of full disclosure, I am an admirer of The Story of Civilization and have read, been challenged by, and edified by each of the eleven volumes. These overviews of history with their emphasis on philosophy, literature, art, and biography rather than on politics and war speak to my own interests. Some academic historians have been hard on the Durant books as too general, not current, and as popularizations of history. Durant himself pled "guilty" to these charges; his audience, he wrote, was educated individuals wanting to know more of Western history and culture, and not scholars.
After reading the Dual Autobiography I know something more about the Durants as people, their lives, and some of their challenges, and I am grateful for that. Nonetheless, I cannot recommend this autobiography to the reader not already invested in the Durants' magnum opus. It's best seen as supplemental reading to those already familiar with and admirers of the Durants' work.
August 1, 2021
“Will and Ariel Durant: A Dual Autobiography” was published in 1977 by Simon & Schuster. This firm also published Will and Ariel Durants’ 11 volume “The Story of Civilization” series. The Durants have won Pulitzer Prizes for non fiction, National Medals of Honor, and many other renown international awards for research and thought leadership. The Durant dual autobiography is exceptionally well done, and explains in detail how their 60+ years of collaboration and life long love inspired generations of people who seek to better understand how our world of philosophic and political social thought evolved over the many centuries of human development. (P)
May 15, 2021
یکی از بهترین کتابایی که خوندم ، همه کتابای ویل و آریل دورانتو خوندم ولی اینو از همه بیشتر دوست داشتم ، لازمه از ترجمه خوب آقای عبداللهی هم تشکر کنم.
October 8, 2018
Excellent and necessary background for anyone reading The Story of Civilization by these two. What a pair! He studied for the priesthood and then became an atheist. She was an anarchist. They would have fit in rather well with today's socialists.
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