Читать книгу Recently Discovered Letters of George Santayana. Cartas recién descubiertas de George Santayana онлайн

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The long early letters (1886-1888) of Santayana to Loeser contain extensive and captivating philosophical passages, while the later (and shorter) ones concern mainly the logistics of the meetings of the two friends in Europe. The last dated letter of the collection (October 26th, 1912) is a beautiful letter of congratulations on the occasion of Loeser’s late marriage to Olga Lebert Kaufmann.

But how did this fine and long-forgotten set of letters come to light again? Like the discovery of penicillin, X-rays or rubber, though admittedly not quite as consequential, locating Santayana ’s letter to Charles Loeser was a matter of serendipity. Following Irving Singer ’s suggestion, who had written that the «Santayana-Cory-Strong triangle»²³ (was «almost worthy of Proust or Henry James in its subtlety,» I began searching for Charles A. Strong’s letters to Santayana, so as to gain a fairer appreciation of the (at times acrimonious) philosophical discussions that took place, for decades, between the two old friends. Strong kept Santayana’s letters, which are included in The Letters of George Santayana, but Santayana hardly ever kept any letters addressed to him. Strong, however, took with utmost seriousness his debates with Santayana, so he made copies of some of his letters to his friend.