News has reached us that the great anti-Marxist philosopher and intellectual Leszek Kolakowski has died, in England at the age of eighty-one. A First Things contributor, he will be missed by all us.
His essays in First Things include:
• Visions of Eternity, and
• What Is Left of Socialism,
while Robert Royal examined Kolakowski’s work in Modernity on Endless Trial and Zbigniew Janowski in Main Currents of Kolakowski.
I imagine the earth when I am no more, as Czeslaw Milosz once wrote.
Nothing happens, no loss, it’s still a strange pageant,
Women’s dresses, dewy lilacs, a song in the valley.
Yet the books will be there on the shelves.
July 18th, 2009 | 8:03 am
Sad news. I’ve been a fan of his for quite a while (thanks exclusively to First Things, for introducing his work to me), and I highly value my copy of Modernity on Endless Trial. I’ve been looking for a copy of My Correct Views on Everything, but I still can’t find one. Has it actually been published yet, or has it just not been translated from Polish yet?
A great mind, and a clever wit, has left us. Blessings to any family that he has.
And thanks to First Things for giving him a voice that allowed him to reach readers like me.