The Book, Cat, & Cat Book Lovers Almanac

of historical trivia regarding books, cats, and other animals. Actually this blog has evolved so that it is described better as a blog about cats in history and culture. And we take as a theme the advice of Aldous Huxley: If you want to be a writer, get some cats. Don't forget to see the archived articles linked at the bottom of the page.

December 27, 2015

December 27, 1933

Rarely is a blog sufficient to get someone a mention on the Cat Lover's Almanac, but in this case, it and a cat, suffice. I put this carefully since I have not read any of Robert Paul Wolff's books, but what stands out from his blog, mainly on his philosophic life, is a charismatic clarity which is nice in the way drinking with friends in a pub can be.

Wolff was at Harvard in the 1950s and taught at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) for many years. He and his second wife, Susie, have a condo in Chapel Hill and an apartment in Paris. And had a cat named Murray. Of this cat he wrote " It is difficult to believe that two seventy-eight year olds invest so much emotion in an 8 1/2 pound cat."

He has written many books, like Kant's Theory Of Mental Activity (1963). I quote from his blog: "Marx observed correctly that capitalism is the most revolutionary force ever loosed upon the world." So it is nothing about his ideas that I admire; it must be the details of a philosophic life that enchants me. And his prose.

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