Volume 25, Number 16 · October 26, 1978
Stopping to Think
By Sheldon S. Wolin
The Life of the Mind; Volume 1, Thinking; Volume 2, Willing
by Hannah Arendt
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Vol. 2, 277 pp., $12.50
The life of the mind is, under the best of circumstances, a somewhat solitary calling, although, as these posthumous volumes attest, not so solitary as to be an exception to the rule that human things are best nurtured in friendship. Through the efforts of her friends we have the work which Hannah Arendt intended to be her climatic achievement. Mary McCarthy has faithfully attended to the task of editing The Life of the Mind and contributed an affectionate and informative account both of the particular circumstances of its genesis and of the working habits of the author observed over a lifetime of close collaboration. For those readers who have followed Hannah Arendt's writings and who may have wondered about occasional differences of style and clarity from one to the other, there is a postface by Miss McCarthy that describes in fascinating detail the 'Englishing' of Hannah Arendt.
Review, 4784 words
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