Public Philosopher : Selected Letters of Walter Lippman

This selection of correspondence written by the man who was America's political conscience spans the years from 1907 to 1969 and includes letters to President Frankin D. Roosevelt and responses to inquisitive graduate students

What matters in the long run "is not the fate of particular notions that we may have, but the development of the habit and tradition of trying to speak truthfully about public affairs," wrote Walter Lippmann (18991974) to a correspondent in 1931. These letters, selected by Yale historian Blum from among some 20,000 written by the distinguished journalist and critic, show Lippman cultivating that "habit" in his personal correspondence with people both famous and obscure, over six decades. These, notes Blum, are Lippmann's public letters, in which he addressed "the history of his time." Important for understanding both the man and his era, the correspondence ranges over matters of war and peace, politics and philosophy, with the writer's characteristic clarity and intelligence. Often, the letters have the quality of Lippmann's columns, written then for the sole perusal of individuals from Lincoln Steffens and Felix Frankfurter to John Foster Dulles and George F. Kennan, and now available to all. Blum's introduction is excellent. November 15
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In correspondence with presidents be fore he was 30, Walter Lippmann wrote some 20,000 letters over a career which intersected both World War I and Viet nam. Lippmann may be remembered best as a critic of our Vietnam policy, but most of these letters, the first pub lished collection, predate the Cold War. They show him engaging every major public question of his day, turn ing to each with the authority and cool precision of a surgeon as he addressed Wilson, the Roosevelts, Holmes, Keynes, Bernard Berenson, and others among the illustrious, as well as ordi nary readers of his daily journalism. There is little of the private man here. Instead, Blum, drawing upon Yale's collection, has assembled an ``intellec tually comprehensive representation'' of Lippmann's thought, illuminating the letters with crisp annotation, an ele gant introduction, and a biographical chronology. Essential for academic and large public libraries. Robert F. Nar dini, M.L.S., Concord, N.H.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.