Albert CamusBiblio.com
THE INTELLECTUAL FOLLIES: A MEMOIR OF THE LITERARY VENTURE IN NEW YORK AND PARIS
198423940New York City NY: W. W. Norton & Company 1984. First Edition. First Printing. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket. New York City NY: W. W. Norton & Company 1984. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 304 pages. The author's landmark memoir. The memoir as a sequence of literary and critical essays. One of the most important intellectual memoirs of the 20th century. Review Copy. Review Material laid-in. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Lionel Abel's "The Intellectual Follies: A Memoir of The Literary Venture In New York And Paris". Riveting recollections of and acute commentary about such diverse figures as Nicola Chiaromonte Jean Genet Mary McCarthy Jean-Paul Sartre Susan Sontag and most controversial of all Hannah Arendt whom Lionel Abel skewers rather mercilessly as only an aggrieved fellow Jewish-American could. Their famous tangle was about Arendt's infamous contentions in her account "Eichmann In Jerusalem" 1963 about "the banality of evil" to describe genocidal murderer Adolf Eichmann during his "show trial" her mocking words and much more painfully about alleged Jewish complicity in and guilt for the Holocaust. According to Arendt the few wealthy and well-connected Jewish leaders helped to systematically round up and offer up impoverished and defenseless fellow Jews in order to gain favor with Hitler and to spare themselves. After performing such invaluable service most of them were killed by the Nazis anyway. Both allegations by Arendt together with her pivotal - and contrary - assertion that the true significance of the Holocaust is Jewish shame that such a thing could ever happen will probably be debated for centuries to come. Rightly or wrongly there is heartbreaking "proof" if that is the word of Arendt's cruel thesis: Many Jews who either successfully fought back at first or survived the camps or somehow managed to escape unscathed eventually committed suicide - which Arendt ascribes to Jewish shame. On the other hand Walter Benjamin the greatest philosopher-critic of the 20th century and Arendt's close friend killed himself in order to save fellow Jewish refugees. Meanwhile Arendt herself - first of all she regarded the actions of the state of Israel itself as illegal - was subsequently ostracized by the New York and European intellectual elite her hard-earned reputation in absolute tatters she died shortly afterwards. Intellectual folly indeed. Lionel Abel fair-minded as always despite their bitter falling out nevertheless regards Arendt's OTHER achievements as courageous and monumental. "The most intelligent man in America" Jean-Paul Sartre. An absolute "must-have" title for Lionel Abel collectors. This is a Review Copy. The Review Material is laid-in. It is very prominently and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the publisher's label which is neatly pasted on the title page by Lionel Abel. This title is a great book. As far as we know this is the only such pre-signed Review Copy with Review Material of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean crisp and bright. It is the single most beautiful signed copy we have ever seen. A rare signed copy thus. One of the greatest intellectual/writers of the 20th century. A fine collectible copy. SEE ALSO OTHER LIONEL ABEL TITLES IN OUR CATALOG. ISBN 0393018415. W. W. Norton & Company hardcover
Modern Rare · États-Unis165,00 $US≈ 139,61 €
