Building Letters 1960-1975

"IB was one of the great affirmers of our time, a man to be admired not only for his intellectual achievements but for his loyalty, his humor, his modesty, his delight in the world and the people in it. Building is a wonderful edifice in his honor, meticulously, indeed lovingly, edited and annotated"

"Consistently interesting and at times strikingly unexpected, these letters show sides of Berlin that have not been seen before" -- John Gray Literary Review "Berlin was sui generis. There never was anyone like him before, and there probably will not be anyone like him again... He was, above all, a genuine -- as opposed to a stage -- liberal, who believed people were entitled to their beliefs and even to their prejudices, and both could be accommodated" -- DJ Taylor Independent on Sunday "Berlin's achievement was immense, in making ideas entertaining in a culture generally averse to them... One way to read [him] today is to relish the passionate man between the high-flown lines" -- Lesley Chamberlain Independent "There are many wonderful sketches. Of, for example, President Kennedy... or Roy Jenkins... and there are damning judgments of many great and good... Dip in and savour a lost world... For reasons of technology (email and text) and also of intellectual culture the letters of today's Berlins... will simply not exist for future historians" -- David Goodhart Sunday Times (Culture) "There is more here to elighten and entertain than in the collected works of most of his contemporaries. In their introduction, the editors say: "If this is not one of the best letter-writers of the 20th century, we are ready to eat our respective hats." Gentlemen, you can leave your hats on." -- Julian Baggini Observer (New Review)