Community Reviews
I've wanted to read this book for a long time. I originally picked it up at the Iliad Bookshop in L.A. in the late 1990s--which shows just how long I've been waiting. I thought I should wait until I'd finished the entire Story of Civilization series, but decided that getting halfway through was good enough. Anyone who can spend a lifetime producing the kind of massive work of popular history that the Durant's did interest me. This memoir impressed upon me just how interesting.
This was an interesting collaboration. Rather than a collaboration with a single blended voice, each writer wrote their own parts in their own voice, sometimes riffing off of the other, other times disagreeing. It was like witnessing a long marriage on the page. I thought Will the better writer of the two, but Ariel was more devilish, fun, and often had more interesting things to say.
Will's work ethic impressed me. In addition to researching and writing, he took countless lecture tours across the country to help support their travels. He could be on the road, in and out of trains, hotels, and lecture halls for a month at a time, all the while working away at his books.
The Durant's popularity also surprised me. Presidents, politicians, actors (Charlie Chaplin, for instance) were all acquaintances or friends.
I liked how they were up front about the criticism of their histories, particularly from academics. These were meant as popular histories, not works of academic scholarship. They were written as much for the joy of the author as the reader. But the Durants' presented many of these criticisms without getting defensive about them.
I was also fascinated to read about their extensive travels for research, and the methods they used for collecting, and organizing all of the material into something from which they could produce a book. They were good friends with the founders of Simon & Schuster and from what I can tell, a symbiotic relationship formed where each helped the other to be more successful.
The book was a joy to read, and more than ever, it made me want to finish The Story of Civilization. Only six more volumes to go!
This was an interesting collaboration. Rather than a collaboration with a single blended voice, each writer wrote their own parts in their own voice, sometimes riffing off of the other, other times disagreeing. It was like witnessing a long marriage on the page. I thought Will the better writer of the two, but Ariel was more devilish, fun, and often had more interesting things to say.
Will's work ethic impressed me. In addition to researching and writing, he took countless lecture tours across the country to help support their travels. He could be on the road, in and out of trains, hotels, and lecture halls for a month at a time, all the while working away at his books.
The Durant's popularity also surprised me. Presidents, politicians, actors (Charlie Chaplin, for instance) were all acquaintances or friends.
I liked how they were up front about the criticism of their histories, particularly from academics. These were meant as popular histories, not works of academic scholarship. They were written as much for the joy of the author as the reader. But the Durants' presented many of these criticisms without getting defensive about them.
I was also fascinated to read about their extensive travels for research, and the methods they used for collecting, and organizing all of the material into something from which they could produce a book. They were good friends with the founders of Simon & Schuster and from what I can tell, a symbiotic relationship formed where each helped the other to be more successful.
The book was a joy to read, and more than ever, it made me want to finish The Story of Civilization. Only six more volumes to go!
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