Walter Kaufmann

The first complete account of the ideas and writings of a major figure in twentieth-century intellectual lifeWalter Kaufmann (1921–1980) was a charismatic philosopher, critic, translator, and poet who fled Nazi Germany at the age of eighteen, emigrating alone to the United States. He single-handedly rehabilitated Nietzsche's reputation after World War II and was enormously influential in introducing postwar American readers to existentialism. Stanley Corngold provides the first in-depth study of Kaufmann's thought, showing how he speaks to many issues that concern us today. Kaufmann was astonishingly prolific until his untimely death at age fifty-nine, writing some dozen major books, all marked by breathtaking erudition and a provocative essayistic style. Corngold introduces Kaufmann to a new generation of readers, vividly portraying the intellectual life of one of the twentieth century's most engaging and neglected thinkers.

"A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year"

Stanley Corngold is professor emeritus of German and comparative literature at Princeton University. His books include Complex Pleasure: Forms of Feeling in German Literature and Lambent Traces: Franz Kafka (Princeton).