Review
"An excellent read, [this] book is also a genuine contribution to the history of our time from an unexpected angle." -Joseph Frank, author of Dostoevsky "Tactful, sympathetic, but relentless, Feferman has compelled her brilliant and complicated subject to open his many secrets to her understanding and ours." -Diane Wood Middlebrook, author of Anne Sexton: A Biography "The picaresque, tragic story of Trotsky's Mexican epilogue has been told before and in detail. This glowing biography of a minor player quickens it to renewed life..[A] moving, original book." -George Steiner, The New Yorker"
Product Description
This story of a highly intelligent observer of the turbulent 20th century who was intimately involved as the secretary and bodyguard to Leon Trotsky is based on extensive interviews with the subject, Jean van Heijenoort, and his family, friends, and colleagues. From Trotsky to Godel sums up the life and achievements of Jean van Heijenoort, whose remarkable career as a student, revolutionary, and scholar reflects many facets of the political and cultural life of the turbulent 20th Century. As a top-level graduate of the famous Lycee Louis Le Grande in Paris, he followed a call to Turkey to become Leon Trotsky's secretary and bodyguard instead of following his intended career as a mathematician. He traveled and worked with Trotsky during his odyssey for over a decade, a keen observer and involved player at the same time. Along the way, van Heijenoort became friends with some remarkable cultural icons, including Frieda Kahlo and her husband Diego Rivera, both famous painters, and the photographer Andre Breton. After the assassination of Trotsky, Van, as his friends called him, picked up his earlier interests and studied mathematics at New York University under the direction of the demanding James Stoker. He became a well-known logician and historian of logic and was one of the editors of Godel's Collected Works. The story of his life is adventurous and educating. His personal relationships are fascinating and tragic. This book does justice to Van and his life and will help the reader understand the passionate involvement of some of the most talented minds of the 20th century in the historical events that shaped it.
