Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) was not only the most important philosopher of his time, arguably one of the greatest ever; he also had a personality of quite exceptional strength, integrity and intensity that both disturbed and inspired those with whom he came into contact, and continues to influence those who discover him at second hand. The life he lived, too, was in many ways quite out of the ordinary. This book is a collection of vivid personal memoirs of Wittgenstein by five people who knew him intimately and in different ways. No philosophical knowledge is needed to read them; their collective effect is extraordinarily powerful.
The authors are Wittgenstein's sister Hermine; his Russian teacher Fania Pascal; F. R. Leavis, a fellow Cambridge don; and two of his pupils, John King and M. O'C. Drury. The editor, the philosopher Rush Rhees, was a pupil and friend of Wittgenstein, and is one of his literary executors.
Norman Malcolm, author of the classic _Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir_ (also in Oxford Paperbacks), has written an introduction specially for this edition.
"All of them in their different ways are illuminating] about a man who must have been as strange and baffling as any man who ever lived." --Michael Wharton, _Sunday Telegraph_