News has reached us that the great anti-Marxist philosopher and intellectual Leszek Kolakowski has died , in England at the age of eighty-one. A First Things contributor, he will be missed by all us.
His essays in First Things include:
• Visions of Eternity , and
• What Is Left of Socialism ,
while Robert Royal examined Kolakowski’s work in Modernity on Endless Trial and Zbigniew Janowski in Main Currents of Kolakowski .
I imagine the earth when I am no more , as Czeslaw Milosz once wrote.
Nothing happens, no loss, it’s still a strange pageant,
Women’s dresses, dewy lilacs, a song in the valley.
Yet the books will be there on the shelves.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
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