The Eric Voegelin Collection

Rare books, articles, and correspondence, 1928-1989. English and German language works. Voegelin, Erich: Ueber die form des amerikanischen geistes: Tübingen, Germany: Verlag von J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1928. First edition. Original paper wrappers. Minor creasing and edgewear to wraps; former library sticker to spine and two-inch sticker scar to front wrap; library stamp to title page with penciled strike-through; otherwise leaves bright and unmarked. A scarce and well-preserved first edition of Voegelin's first published book (later translated as On the Form of the American Mind). [German language work]

Voegelin, Erich: Rasse und staat: Tübingen, Germany: Verlag von J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1933. First edition. Original paper wrappers. Minor creasing and edgewear to wrappers with some rubbing and spotting; chipping to head and foot of spine; faint sunning to wrappers; occasional pencil underlining and marginalia; otherwise well-preserved. [German language work]

Voegelin, Erich: Die rassenidee in der geistesgeschichte: Berlin, Germany: Junker und Dünnhaupt Verlag, 1933. Original paper wrappers. Edgewear and creasing to wrappers with spotting and staining to rear wrap; minor chipping to wrapper edges; occasional pencil underlining and marginalia; minor toning and scuffing to certain leaves. Ink inscription by Voegelin at head of front wrap. [German language work]

Voegelin, Erich: Der autoritäre staat: Wien, Verlag von Julius Springer, 1936. First edition. Original boards with paper titling. Toning and scuffing to boards; former library stamps to cover, title page, and page blocks; call sticker and scar to spine; library markings to title page and endpapers (in pencil); faint toning to leaves. Increasingly scarce. [German language work]

Voegelin, Erich: Die politischen religionen: Bermann-Fischer Verlag A.-B., Stockholm, 1939. First edition. Original stiff paper wrappers. Edgewear and scuffing to wrappers; offsetting to endpapers from wrappers; some toning to wrappers and leaves. [German language work]

Voegelin, Eric: The New Science of Politics: An Introductory Essay: Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1952. First edition. Original blue cloth and dust jacket (not price-clipped). Faint sunning to boards at spine; small stamp to bottom of rear inside jacket flap ("Mar 16 1953"); original red top stain to page block; else bright and unmarked. Rare first edition of Voegelin's renowned and revolutionary classic of political philosophy-even scarcer in this condition. [English language work]

Voegelin, Eric: Israel and Revelation (Order and History: Volume One): Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1956. First edition. Original maroon cloth and dust jacket (not price-clipped). Minor edgewear to boards; vertical indentation to board spine; some smudging and scuffing to page block; edgewear and scuffing to dust jacket, with minor chips (resulting in minor loss at foot and head of spine); one-inch closed tear to top-rear jacket panel; minor sunning to dust jacket. Scarce with dust jacket in this condition, very good. [English language work]

Voegelin, Eric: The World of the Polis (Order and History: Volume Two): Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1957. First edition. Original maroon cloth and dust jacket (not price-clipped). Minor edgewear to boards; minor scuffing to page block; minor edgewear and scuffing to dust jacket, with minor chips (resulting in minor loss at foot and head of spine); some spotting to rear jacket panel; faint sunning to jacket spine. [English language work]

Voegelin, Eric: Plato and Aristotle (Order and History: Volume Three): Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1957. First edition. Original maroon cloth and dust jacket (not price-clipped). Minor edgewear to boards; minor smudging to page block; faint bookseller marks to half-title page; slight cocking; minor edgewear and scuffing to dust jacket, with minor chips (resulting in minor loss at foot and head of spine); sunning to jacket spine and front panel; small one-inch bookshop sticker to bottom rear pastedown. [English language work]

Beck, C. H.: Politische ordnung und menschliche existenz: Festigabe für Eric Voegelin: Munich, Germany: Verlag C. H. Beck München, 1962. Original beige cloth and dust jacket (not price-clipped). Firm, but front board beginning to pull away; minor dusting to page block; minor edgewear to jacket with sunning to jacket, particularly to spine. [German language work]

Voegelin, Eric: Was ist politische Realität? Sonderdruck aus Politische Vierteljahresschrift: Westdeutscher Verlag, Köln und Opladen, 7. Jahrgang, Heft 1, 1966. Original paper wrappers. Faint toning to wraps along untitled spine; small bump to foot of spine; else near-fine. Ink inscription by Voegelin at head of front wrap. [German language work]

Voegelin, Eric: Anamnesis: Zur Theorie der Geschichte und Politik: Munich, Germany: R. Piper & Co. Verlag, 1966. First edition. Original orange cloth boards and dust jacket (not price-clipped). Minor toning to endpapers; former owner blind stamp to half-title page; occasional marginalia (pencil); minor edgewear to jacket; very good in near-fine dust jacket. [German language work]

Voegelin, Eric: "Immortality: Experience and Symbol" in The Harvard Theological Review, Volume 60, Number 3 (July, 1967): Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1967. First edition. Original paper wrappers. Some creasing to wrappers, particular at top-front corner; minor rubbing to wrappers and spine; bookseller ink mark to front wrapper ("CT"); faint marking to page block. [English language work]

Voegelin, Eric: Zwischen Revolution und Restauration: Munich, Germany: Paul List Verlag, 1968. Original wrappers. Faint sunning to spine; some spotting to rear wrapper and smudging to bottom page block; "ex libris H. J. Sandkühler" (German philosopher) to front free endpaper. [German language work]

Voegelin, Eric: Science, Politics & Gnosticism: Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1968. First Gateway Edition. Original paper wrappers. Some rubbing and scuffing to wrappers; faint bookseller marks (in pencil) to half-title page; age toning to leaves. [English language work]

Voegelin, Eric: "The Eclipse of Reality" in Phenomenology and Social Reality: Essays in Memory of Alfred Schutz: The Hague, Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff, 1970. First edition. Original paper wrappers. Sunning and creasing to wrappers, particularly at spine and edges; minor edgewear to spine; 1x2-inch price sticker to foot of rear wrapper; else pages bright and well-preserved. [English language work]

Voegelin, Eric: "The Turn of the Screw" in The Southern Review, Volume VII, Number 1 (January, 1971): Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1971. First edition. Original orange paper wraps. Some bumping and creasing to wraps; sunning to spine and rear wrap; smudging to rear wrap; minor spotting to page block; else a bright copy of this uncommon journal edition containing Voegelin's classic evaluation of Henry James's The Turn of the Screw. [English language work]

Voegelin, Eric: The Ecumenic Age (Order and History: Volume Four): Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1974. First edition. Original brown cloth and dust jacket (not price-clipped). Minor edgewear to boards; staining to rear free endpaper and pastedown (not affecting leaves); some foxing to top of page block; minor scuffing to dust jacket. [English language work]

Voegelin, Eric: "Reason: The Classic Experience" in The Southern Review, Volume X, Number 2 (April, 1974): Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1974. First edition. Original red paper wraps. Some bumping and creasing to wraps with wear along spine; smudging to wraps with minor staining to foot of front wrap and page block; spotting to page block. [English language work]

Voegelin, Eric: From Enlightenment to Revolution: Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1975. First edition. Octavo. Original blue cloth and dust-jacket (not price-clipped). Faint scuffing to boards; minor rubbing and edgewear to dust jacket with small chips to edges; half-inch closed tear to top-front of jacket; sunning to spine and top-front of jacket (title remains bold); faint toning to certain leaves and minor spotting to page block. Increasingly uncommon in this condition. [English language work]

Voegelin, Eric: Anamnesis: Notre Dame, University of Notre Dame Press, 1978. Translated and edited by Gerhart Niemeyer. First edition. Octavo. Original brown cloth and dust-jacket (not price-clipped). Minor rubbing and edgewear to dust jacket. [English language work]

Voegelin, Eric: "Wisdom and the Magic of the Extreme: A Meditation" in The Southern Review, Volume 17, Number 2 (April, 1981): Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1981. Original maroon paper wraps. Minor rubbing to wraps, else near-fine. [English language work]

Voegelin, Eric: In Search of Order (Order and History: Volume Five): Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1987. First edition. Original brown boards and dust jacket (not price-clipped). Minor edgewear to boards and spotting to page block; dust jacket is fine. [English language work]

Voegelin, Eric: Autobiographical Reflections: Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1989. First edition, first printing. Original green cloth and dust-jacket (not price-clipped). Fine in fine dust jacket. This first edition is inscribed by editor and Voegelin scholar Ellis Sandoz to front free endpaper: "To my friend Ross Lence / With all good wishes / Ellis Sandoz / LSU Feb. 1990." Inscription by the book's editor and prominent Voegelin scholar and popularizer, Ellis Sandoz. [English language work]

Voegelin, Eric: Original signed manuscript letter, signed (2 pages; 1 sheet), dated as of October 10, 1938. Toning to letter, with neat fold marks; now preserved in protective archival sleeve. An unpublished original manuscript letter signed by Voegelin in which he describes his mental state two weeks after arriving in the US in 1938 after fleeing the Gestapo as well as his personal and professional activities during that period. A remarkable letter documenting an important moment in Voegelin's life. [German language work]

Small collection of newspaper articles written by and about Eric Voegelin, a pamphlet with a rare essay by Voegelin on "Die Dritte Phase der Industriegesellschaft," and an interesting article on Voegelin's attempt to establish a "political science from a Christian point of view" (the essay being "Die Mystifizierung des Politischen Denkens").

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Collection of rare books, articles, correspondence, and ephemera, including signed and inscribed works, by and about Eric Voegelin (1901-1985). This collection assembles most of Voegelin's published books, many in first edition, and many originally published articles. The capstone of the collection is an originally signed manuscript letter that Voegelin composed and sent shortly after his arrival in the United States after fleeing the Gestapo following the Anschluss in 1938. Among the highlights of the collection is a first edition of his first published book, Ueber die form des amerikanischen geistes (1928), later published in English as On the Form of the American Mind, and all five volumes of Voegelin's Order and History series, as originally published by the Louisiana State University Press from 1956-1987: Israel and Revelation (1956), The World of the Polis (1957), Plato and Aristotle (1957), The Ecumenic Age (1974), and In Search of Order (1987). The collection also includes the complete run of Voegelin's publications in The Southern Review, including his famous work of literary criticism in "The Turn of the Screw" (Volume VII, Number 1 (January, 1971)), and other rare articles and publications in their original first issues. Most of Voegelin's early German book publications are collected here, including books published between 1928 and 1938 and his departure for the US to escape Nazi persecution. Voegelin's groundbreaking The New Science of Politics: An Introductory Essay (1952) is represented in a bright first edition that is increasingly scarce in this condition. Voegelin's Autobiographical Reflections, published posthumously in 1989, is here represented in fine condition with an inscription by the work's editor and influential Voegelin scholar Ellis Sandoz. Included in the collection are several works signed by Voegelin, including Die rassenidee in der geistesgeschichte (1933) (Voegelin inscription to front wrapper) and Was ist politische Realität? Sonderdruck aus Politische Vierteljahresschrift (1966) (Voegelin inscription to front wrapper), and an unpublished original manuscript letter addressed and signed by Voegelin in 1938. While notoriously difficult to define, Voegelin's wide-ranging and influential body of work represented a philosophy of politics, history, and religion that endeavored to grasp and clarify the movement of human consciousness in history and the violence that so often sprang from it, particularly in the ideological movements that characterized much of nineteenth and twentieth-century Europe. Born in Cologne, Germany in 1901, Voegelin spent his early childhood years in Germany before moving with his family to Vienna when he was nine years old. While in Vienna he showed early intellectual promise under the tutelage of legendary Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises and the famous "Mises Circle" of scholars. After graduating with a degree in Political Science from the University of Vienna in 1922, Voegelin would study at Oxford and in the United States, including with pragmatist John Dewey, economist John Commons, and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead. Voegelin returned to Germany following his studies in America and attempted to confront the terrors National Socialism through four publications: Rasse und staat (1933), Die rassenidee in der geistesgeschichte (1933), Der autoritäre staat (1936), and Die politischen religionen (1939). The Nazis confiscated the last of these confrontational works and attempted to arrest Voegelin, but he narrowly escaped to the US after a stay in Switzerland-details that Voegelin recounts in the manuscript letter included in the collection. Although Voegelin would teach at many US universities in the years that followed, Louisiana State University would become his flagship home in America from 1942 through 1958, whereupon Voegelin left Baton Rouge to return to Germany to fill Max Weber's chair in political science at the University of Munich. In the years that followed, Voegelin published scores of articles and books in the areas of political science, philosophy, history, and religion, but among his pathbreaking works was his The New Science of Politics: An Introductory Essay, published in 1952 as a summation of the six Charles R. Walgreen Foundation lectures he delivered at the University of Chicago in 1951, and which presents a new conception of man, society, and history and their cosmological and anthropological expressions. The New Science of Politics is often viewed as a prolegomenon to the Order and History series that followed. This five-volume series was originally born out of Voegelin's agreement to write a history of ideas concerning order in the world. However, as his own insights into the order of history developed, Voegelin encountered serious philosophical difficulties in completing the series. Indeed, although the first three books in the series were published in rapid succession in 1956 and 1957, the fourth in the series (The Ecumenic Age) was not published until 1974 and marked a methodological course correction for Voegelin. The series concluded in 1987 with the posthumous publication of the fifth and final work In Search of Order. Throughout these and his other works Voegelin emphasized the importance of transcendence to social and political order and the need for human beings to translate, through symbols, their relation to the ground of Being. When humanity's connection to the transcendent is denied or deformed the result is the proliferation of gnostic and ideological movements-movements that claim cognitive mastery over reality. Voegelin sought to explore and expose the movement of human consciousness within our shared social and political history so that we may better diagnose the gnosticism that afflicts our modern world. Voegelin's lifelong project is still being grappled with today; indeed, the scope and depth of his work, and the new direction in which he proposes to turn the penetrating mind, represent a remarkable achievement. This collection of Voegelin works and ephemera is truly unique and includes works that are increasingly scarce.