Humanist profile

Humanist, Nov-Dec, 2005

Will Durant (1885-1981)

Ariel Durant (1898-1981)

1977 Humanist Pioneers

"The most interesting thing in the world is another human being who wonders, suffers and raises the questions that have bothered him to the last day of his life, knowing he will never get the answers."--Will Durant

Will Durant was born in North Adams, Massachusetts, to French Canadian parents. In 1907 he graduated from Saint Peter's College and took a job as a reporter for the New York Evening Journal. He later began teaching Latin, French, English, and Geometry at Seton Hall College. In 1911 he became a teacher and principal at the Ferrer Modern School, an experiment in libertarian-anarchist education, where he met his future wife, Ariel.

Born in Proskurov, Russia, as Chaya Kaufman, Ariel was thirteen years Will's junior when she met him at the Ferrer School. After falling in love with her, Will quit his school position in 1913 so they could marry.

Will began studying for his doctorate at Columbia University, around which time Ariel's intellect began to flourish as she began contributing to Will's research and writing, and participating in debates with such philosophical heavyweights as Bertrand Russell and George Santayana.

In 1917, with the publication of his first book, Philosophy and the Social Problem, Will received his Ph.D, At this time he was also lecturing at a local Presbyterian church on the history of philosophy, literature, music, art, and science. It was through these lectures that he met the publisher E. Haldeman-Julius, who coaxed him into writing one and eventually eleven short books on philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle. These pamphlets would provide Will with the inspiration for his next work, The Story of Philosophy.

The Durants' next project was their most monumental, taking up the remainder of their lives. It was called The Story of Civilization and its eleven volumes would cover everything from ancient Chinese civilization to Napoleon's conquest of Europe. In this work the Durants took an interdisciplinary approach to history, writing hot only about powerful people and large-scale events but also about the daily life and experiences of ordinary people. Although exhaustively researched, The Story of Civilization was written for a lay audience. Its tenth volume won them the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1968.

In 1976 each received the Humanist Pioneer Award of the American Humanist Association, conferred at the AHA Western Regional Conference in Los Angeles, California, where the above photo by Jay Morris was taken. And in 1977 Will Durant received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Gerald Ford.

In addition to their writing, the Durants had always put their Humanist philosophy into action by fighting for equal wages, women's suffrage, and better working conditions for the labor force. In the 1940s Will wrote a Declaration of Interdependence, which called for racial and religious equality, a decade before the civil rights movement began. Ariel was also recognized for her efforts and was named "Woman of the Year" by the city of Los Angeles in 1977.

The Durants died within two weeks of each other in 1981. They are buried together in Los Angeles.