Dagobert David Runes was a philosopher and author.
Biography
Born in Zastavna, Bukovina, Austro-Hungary, He had received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Vienna in 1924 where he had been a student of Moritz Schlick. Runes authored many non-fiction books while still in Vienna, the heart of Europe’s cultural life in the 1920s & 30s. One of his works, Der Wahre Jesus published in 1927, is a study of how Christians who swept across the world killing people in the name of Jesus during the crusades have abused and misused the name of Jesus. Runes, realizing that those in political powers were after him, emigrated to the United States in 1926 with his extended family including his wife Maria Teresa. In the U.S. he became editor of The Modern Thinker and later Current Digest. From 1931 to 1934 he was Director of the Institute for Advanced Education in New York City. He had an encyclopedic level fluency in Latin and Biblical Hebrew; he fluently spoke and wrote in Austrian German, German, Yiddish, French, Hebrew, Russian, Polish, Czechoslovakian, and English. He started a small magazine called Better English, which he sold for a nickel per issue. Within a month, it sold 1,000 copies. From that, in 1941 the Philosophical Library Publishing Company was born as a spiritual organization and publishing house. In 1942 he compiled a Dictionary of Philosophy, which after being rejected by several publishers, he decided to publish himself in 1942. The book was a great success and assured the financial health of the Philosophical Library. Dagobert D. Runes was a master at identifying important intellectuals early in their careers. He published works for 22 Nobel Prize winners and other key figures including Albert Einstein, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Paramahansa Yogananda and Albert Schweitzer. Runes was a colleague and friend to Albert Einstein. The Philosophical Library’s 3,000 titles include seven books by or about Einstein. Runes published an English translation of Marx's On the Jewish Question under the title A World without Jews. Though this has often been considered the first translation of the work, a Soviet anti-zionist, propaganda version had existed a few years earlier, which was likely unknown to Runes. As the title of Runes' book sounded antisemitic, it had extremely limited circulation in the English-speaking world. Runes wrote an introduction to the translation that was clearly antagonistic to extreme Marxism, and 'its materialism,' as he would later often put it, yet he did not entirely negate Marxism. The Philosophical Library also became a repository for over 20 authors on existential themes, many in translation, starting in 1956 with Sartre's Being and Nothingness. Runes also edited several works presenting the ideas and history of philosophy to a general audience, especially his Dictionary of Philosophy.
Selected works
Der wahre Jesus oder das fünfte Evangelium R. Cerny, 1927.
Dictionary of Philosophy Philosophical Library, 1942.
Philosophical Library, 1947.
Jordan Lieder: Frühe Gedichte The Philosophical Library, 1948.
Letters to My Son The Philosophical Library, 1949.
The Hebrew Impact on Western Civilization The Philosophical Library, 1951.
Spinoza Dictionary The Philosophical Library, 1951.
The Soviet Impact on Society: A Recollection, 1953.
Letters to My Daughter The Philosophical Library, 1954.
Treasury of Philosophy The Philosophical Library, 1955.
Treasury of World Literature The Philosophical Library, 1956.
On the Nature of Man The Philosophical Library, 1956.
Sartre, J.P., Being and Nothingness Translated by Hazel E. Barnes, The Philosophical Library, 1956.
