At a glance
- Age
- 96
- Born
- November 5, 1885
- From
- North Adams
- Nationality
- United States
Biography
The quotes that circulate under his name come from a writer whose main project was making big ideas readable for people outside universities. In 1926 he published The Story of Philosophy, a book credited with bringing philosophy to a general audience and described as groundbreaking for doing so. It made him known well before the larger work that occupied the rest of his life.
That larger work was The Story of Civilization, eleven volumes covering the history of both Eastern and Western civilisations. He wrote it with his wife, Ariel Durant, and the volumes appeared over four decades, from 1935 to 1975 — a span of writing that outlasts most careers, let alone most single projects.
Born William James Durant in North Adams in 1885, he worked as a historian and philosopher and died in 1981. His weight with readers rests less on any single argument than on the scale of what he attempted: putting the whole recorded story of human thought and society into prose an ordinary reader could follow.
That larger work was The Story of Civilization, eleven volumes covering the history of both Eastern and Western civilisations. He wrote it with his wife, Ariel Durant, and the volumes appeared over four decades, from 1935 to 1975 — a span of writing that outlasts most careers, let alone most single projects.
Born William James Durant in North Adams in 1885, he worked as a historian and philosopher and died in 1981. His weight with readers rests less on any single argument than on the scale of what he attempted: putting the whole recorded story of human thought and society into prose an ordinary reader could follow.
