Author: Shelley Frisch in Conversation with Michael Wood

A Library and Labyrinth Collaboration

Shelley Frisch discusses her translation of Thomas Meyer’s biography of Hannah Arendt, one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century, with Princeton University professor emeritus Michael Wood.

About the Book (from the publisher):
Drawing on newly discovered archival materials and previously overlooked documents—from both Germany, where Hannah Arendt was born to a Jewish family in 1906, and the United States, where she was a citizen from 1950—Thomas Meyer tells the story of an intellectual icon whose character and ideas continue to captivate and challenge us to this day. Tracing anew Arendt’s journey from Königsberg to Paris, where she fled after being imprisoned in 1933, and finally to New York in 1941, Meyer illuminates her formative years and the development of her radical and brilliant books, as well as her lifelong philosophical debate with Martin Heidegger, whose Nazism was a permanent challenge for her. Meyer’s account centers on two pivotal phases—Arendt’s years in Paris after fleeing Nazi Germany and her time in the United States leading up to the landmark publication of The Origins of Totalitarianism in 1951—providing not only a meticulous reconstruction of her life but also a compelling invitation to rethink her legacy for our times.

At a time of acute political polarization, with liberalism in crisis and urgent debates about freedom, responsibility, and truth unfolding all around, Arendt’s writings and ideas resonate more powerfully than ever. Meyer’s account of her extraordinary life is groundbreaking and sensational, not just for his illuminating and peerless research, but also for his incisive exploration of what Arendt’s work has meant over the decades—and continues to mean for us today.

About the Speakers:

Shelley Frisch’s translations from German include biographies of Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Marlene Dietrich and Leni Riefenstahl (a dual biography) and Franz Kafka, along with numerous other works of fiction and nonfiction. Her translations have received numerous awards and prizes. Frisch has chaired the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize jury since 2015. She lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

Michael Wood is professor emeritus of comparative literature at Princeton University and the author of numerous books, including "Yeats and Violence," "Alfred Hitchcock: The Man Who Knew Too Much" and "The Magician’s Doubts: Nabokov and the Risks of Fiction" (Princeton). He is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books.

Co-sponsored by the library, Labyrinth Books and Princeton University's Department of Comparative Literature and Humanities Council with support from the NEH.

Public Humanities programs and resources are presented with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this programming do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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