A Life in Letters

Simone Weil

ISBN 10: 0674304942 / ISBN 13: 9780674304949

Published by Harvard University Press, US, 2026

About this Item

The inspiring letters of philosopher, mystic, and freedom fighter Simone Weil to her family, presented for the first time in English.Now in the pantheon of great thinkers, Simone Weil (1909-1943) lived largely in the shadows. Assembled here, the letters she wrote to her parents and brother from childhood onward chart her intellectual range as well as her itinerancy and shifting preoccupations, revealing the singular personality at the heart of her brilliant essays.The daughter of a bourgeois Parisian Jewish family, Weil was a troublemaking idealist who preferred the company of miners and Russian exiles to that of her peers. A scholar of history and politics, she ultimately found a home in Christian mysticism. Weil paired teaching with poetry and even dabbled in mathematics, as evidenced by her correspondence with her brother, André, who won the Kyoto Prize in 1994 for the famed Weil Conjectures.The first complete collection of Simone Weil's missives to her family, A Life in Letters vividly illustrates her thought taking shape as she joins the Spanish struggle against fascism and the transatlantic resistance to the Nazis. An introduction and notes contextualize the letters historically and intellectually, providing an ideal entryway into Weil's treasured body of writing.

Seller Inventory # LU-9780674304949

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Life in Letters
• Publisher: Harvard University Press, US
• Publication Date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674304942
• ISBN 13: 9780674304949
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 543 grams

About this title

Synopsis

The inspiring letters of philosopher, mystic, and freedom fighter Simone Weil to her family, presented for the first time in English.

Now in the pantheon of great thinkers, Simone Weil (1909–1943) lived largely in the shadows. Assembled here, the letters she wrote to her parents and brother from childhood onward chart her intellectual range as well as her itinerancy and shifting preoccupations, revealing the singular personality at the heart of her brilliant essays.
The daughter of a bourgeois Parisian Jewish family, Weil was a troublemaking idealist who preferred the company of miners and Russian exiles to that of her peers. A scholar of history and politics, she ultimately found a home in Christian mysticism. Weil paired teaching with poetry and even dabbled in mathematics, as evidenced by her correspondence with her brother, André, who won the Kyoto Prize in 1994 for the famed Weil Conjectures.

The first complete collection of Simone Weil’s missives to her family, A Life in Letters vividly illustrates her thought taking shape as she joins the Spanish struggle against fascism and the transatlantic resistance to the Nazis. An introduction and notes contextualize the letters historically and intellectually, providing an ideal entryway into Weil’s treasured body of writing.

About the Authors

Simone Weil (1909–1943) was a French philosopher, mystic, and political activist, widely considered one of the most original thinkers of the twentieth century.

Robert Chenavier is President of the Association for the Study of Simone Weil’s Thought and the author of four books, most recently Simone Weil, une Juive antisémite?

André A. Devaux (1921–2017) was Professor of Philosophy at the Sorbonne (Paris IV).