Will Durant
| William Durant | |
|---|---|
William Durant and Ariel Durant (1930)
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| Born | William James Durant November 5, 1885 North Adams, Massachusetts, United States |
| Died | November 7, 1981 (aged 96) Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Occupation | Historian, writer, philosopher, teacher |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater |
Saint Peter's College (B.A., 1907) Columbia University (PhD, philosophy, 1917) |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Subject | History, philosophy, religion |
| Literary movement | Philosophy, etc. |
| Spouse | Ariel Durant |
| Children | Ethel Durant |
William James "Will" Durant (/dəˈrænt/; November 5, 1885 – November 7, 1981) was an American writer, historian, and philosopher. He is best known for The Story of Civilization, 11 volumes written in collaboration with his wife, Ariel Durant, and published between 1935 and 1975. He was earlier noted for The Story of Philosophy (1926), described as "a groundbreaking work that helped to popularize philosophy".
He conceived of philosophy as total perspective or seeing things sub specie totius, a phrase inspired by Spinoza's sub specie aeternitatis. He sought to unify and humanize the great body of historical knowledge, which had grown voluminous and become fragmented into esoteric specialties, and to vitalize it for contemporary application.
The Durants were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1968 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977.
Durant was born in North Adams, Massachusetts, to French-Canadian Catholic parents Joseph Durant and Mary Allard, who had been part of the Quebec emigration to the United States.
In 1900, Durant was educated by the Jesuits in St. Peter's Preparatory School and, later, Saint Peter's College in Jersey City, New Jersey. Historian Joan Rubin writes of that period, "Despite some adolescent flirtations, he began preparing for the vocation that promised to realize his mother's fondest hopes for him: the priesthood. In that way, one might argue, he embarked on a course that, while distant from Yale's or Columbia's apprenticeships in gentility, offered equivalent cultural authority within his own milieu."
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