Flourishing

Flourishing is the first volume of a keenly awaited edition of the marvellously readable and entertaining letters of the most famous English intellectual of the last century.Berlin's letters are marvellously accessible, and as entertaining. During the two decades covered here his personality and career grow and bloom. In America, during the war, he writes a regular telegram to his anxious parents, often saying just 'Flourishing'; the word fits not only his wartime experience, but the whole of his early life, vividly displayed in this book in all its multi-faceted delightfulness.

“"Anyone who knows Berlin's writing through his slightly stodgy essays will find these vivid letters a revelation." -Independent”

Isiah Berlin was one of the great letter-writers of the twentieth century: witty, indiscreet, passionate, wise and unbuttoned. He also lived through extraordinary moments of twentieth-century history, and these letters capture those moments -- Michael Ignatieff, author of Isiah Berlin: A Life
Reading this glorious collection of letters is, predictably, a heady experience... rich and irresistable -- Simon Schama New Republic
Incredibly readable and entertaining Good Book Guide
Full of insights about everyone and everything. He was an alpha-level gossip, the genius kind... a conversation of wit and substance that you never want to end -- Michael Pye Scotsman

Isaiah Berlin was born in Riga, now capital of Latvia, in 1909. When he was six, his family moved to Russia, and in Petrograd in 1917 Berlin witnessed both Revolutions - Social Democratic and Bolshevik. In 1921 he and his parents emigrated to England, where he was educated at St Paul's School, London, and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Apart from his war service in New York, Washington, Moscow and Leningrad, he remained at Oxford thereafter - as a Fellow of All Souls, then of New College, as Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory, and as founding President of Wolfson College. He also held the Presidency of the British Academy.His published work includes Karl Marx, Russian Thinkers, Concepts and Categories, Against the Current, Personal Impressions, The Sense of Reality, The Proper Study of Mankind, The Roots of Romanticism, The Power of Ideas, Three Critics of the Enlightenment, Freedom and Its Betrayal, Liberty, The Soviet Mind and Political Ideas in the Romantic Age. As an exponent of the history of ideas he was awarded the Erasmus, Lippincott and Agnelli Prizes; he also received the Jerusalem Prize for his lifelong defence of civil liberties. He died in 1997.

'Isaiah Berlin was one of the greatest letter-writers of the twentieth century: witty, indiscreet, passionate, wise and unbuttoned. He also lived through extraordinary moments of twentieth-century history, and these letters capture those moments.' Micahel Ignatieff, author of Isaiah Berlin: A Life Isaiah Berlin's letters are marvellously accessible and entertaining. During two decades covered here, his personality and career grows and blooms. In America during the war, he writes a regular telegram to his anxious parents, often saying just 'Flourishing'; the word fits not only his wartime experience, but the whole of his early life, vividly displayed here in all its multi-faceted delighfulness. 'Reading the glorious collection of letters is, predictably, a heady experience...rich and irresistible.' Simon Schama, New Republic 'The inimitable voice of a generous magnanimous intellect.' New Statesman 'Incredibly readable and entertaing.' Good Book Guide 'Full of insights about everyone and everything. He was an alpha-level gossip, the genius kind...a conversation of wit and substance that you never want to end. Michael Pye, Scotsman

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