The Isaiah Berlin Virtual Library

Michael Ignatieff, Isaiah Berlin: A Life

As the first biographical user of the Isaiah Berlin Papers, before they were all assembled in one place and catalogued, Michael Ignatieff did not have ready access to all the sources that he would have been able to use had he been starting afresh today; he was also under pressure to complete his task within a short time after Berlin’s death. The first edition of his biography therefore contains a number of what can now be seen as inaccuracies. In order that subsequent students of Berlin may not be misled or travel up blind alleys, this page offers a repository for information that corrects or supplements what appears in Ignatieff’s book. Contributions from any source are welcome.
At an appropriate time, Michael Ignatieff will be issuing a revised edition of the biography, making use of the published volumes of Berlin’s letters as well as the fruits of scholarship that have emerged since the publication of the first edition.
Errors corrected in the paperback edition appear in blue cells; of these, corrections marked * require further adjustment.
Page
Line
For
Read
xi 6 Yitzka Yitzhak
1 1 The Albany Albany
5 13 Kempf Kempff
11 4 Eli Elkanah
12
 16 river canal
15
 5–4 up one of the daughters of the Zemach Zadek
 one of the granddaughters of the Zemach Zedek
17 9–8 up 13 March 1906. She was twenty-six, he was twenty-three. 14/27 March 1906. She was [at the most] twenty-six, he was twenty-one.
19
 1–2
 Scheissemusik [...] shit music Schreiemusik [...] screaming music
23 17 Kvorost Khvorost
25
 18
 autumn
 summer
27
 17–16 up
 Two of her sisters, Ida [...] and Evgenia [...], were
 Marie’s sister Ida [...] and Mendel’s sister Evgenia [...] were
32
 2
 3 February
 20 February
42 10 the spring of late
48 1 five- seven-
54 11 up Giovanezza Giovinezza
64 8 tight,  very tight
65 4 dish saucer
  23 in the front garden in front of the house
66 18 Nicholson’s Nicolson’s
68 2 Mill House the Mill House*
69 12 up a state hospital in [delete]
75 8 up andere Farbingen anderen Farbigen
81 12 up his Ayer’s
90 18 Blaskett Blasket
92 8 Avenue Lane
101 14 informing ordering
102 11 Heyman Hillman
107 2 Grand Central Penn
120 5 up whole-scale wholesale
129 6 hare the hare
161 19 Marinsky Mariinsky
168 last arrest, trial and execution of fifteen arrest and torture of nine
177 8 blew up  blew up part of 
186 16 October September–October
199 14 up Die Der
202 11 positive and negative negative and positive
204 10 up BBC Radio’s  the BBC* 
205 3–4 the ‘Paganini of the platform’ ‘a Paganini of ideas’
206 13 up sua vita vita sua
212 18 up America England
  14 up for the duration of the war until 1944
217 12 up Cry, child, cry Weep, my child, weep
218 15 Cocteau’s mistress [delete]
225 13 up 1961 1960
230 16 Bloom Gewirth
244 6 up Some Sources of Romanticism Sources of Romantic Thought
247 14 late 1950s the 1940s
251 18/19 one of them a colleague*
258 8 the experience of a young Russian his experience
268 5 No. 60  Nos. 47 and 60 
293 20 Chief former Chief
300 1 betsror betsror hachayim [or hachaim]
  2 up minor  flat major*
306
 2 up
 Europaïsche
 Europäische

last 1999 1998
307 4 transcripts tapes or transcripts
307 8 up to be found in [delete]
  6 up Ideas Ideas (London, 1979); it was most recently updated for the Pimlico edition of this collection
  4 up Environment Environment (London, 1939; 4th ed. Oxford, 1978, reprinted with an
    Ryan Ryan and a*
  3 up (London, 1939) , London 
  2 up , (London, 1956;  (New York, 1956; Oxford,
308  1 Yaacov Yaachov
  13 1988) 1998): references are to the second edition
  21 Housheer, with an Hausheer, foreword by Noel Annan,
  23 mss. typescript

1/4 410–11: ‘argued [...] Jew’.
 255 (‘There was the great Isaiah Berlin, a Portuguese Jew by the look of him. Oxford’s leading light; a communist, I think, a fire-eater’), 410–11 (‘argued [...] Jew’).
310 4/7 Drought Draught
  5/8 position of Alexandra Position of Alexander
311 6/6 Spender H. A. L. Fisher
  6/11 Glendenning Glendinning
312 6/38 Klemperor Klemperer
  6/48 Personal A Personal
313 6/48  PhD PhD thesis
314 7/31 16 suppl. vol. 16
  7/45 Memories Days
315   8/13 Relationship Relationships
  9/21 17.10.42 [delete 2nd occurrence]
  9/23 L. E. L.
317 9/40 IB MB
    19 9
  9/41 18 broadcast 18
  9/51 Birkenhead, Earl of, Earl of Birkenhead,
318 9/71 and 10/1 Crossthwaite Crosthwaite
319 10/16 Pharaoh” ’,  Pharaoh” ’, unpublished typescript,
320 11/17 Gyorgy György
321 11/45 IB,  IB, trans. Julie Curtis

11/54 Stiflung Stiftung*
324 13/5 Humanities and the Sciences Sciences and the Humanities
326 13/44 lecture chapter


mss. typescript

13/45 mss. typescript
328 15/9 5.10.51, 28.9.51, 5.10.51,

15/11 Gerry Jerry
329 15/26 Bloom Gewirth

15/34 mss. typescript
331 15/66 Bohlem Bohlen

16/1 Some [delete]


Romanticism Romantic Thought
332 16/24 Marrice Maurice
333 17/6 MI/IV IB interviewed by
334 17/16 1965 (Oxford, 1966); 1965–6;* 

17/28 Monkeys, Men and Missiles From Apes to Warlords


1988 1978), ch. 5.

17/35 1965 1965–6

17/39 1997, 1997, 8th week,
336 18/25 On the The

18/26 Eighteenth Century Eighteenth-Century

18/34 D. Phil D. Phil. thesis
337 19/17 10.3.97; 31.10.97;
342 col. 2, 8 up 1944 1940
343 col. 2, 5  Bloom, Alan, 230 [delete]
346 col. 1, Fisher née  later

col. 2, new line 3
[insert] Gewirth, Alan, 230

col. 2, Halban first second
347 col. 2, Heyman
Hillman [and move to follow Hill, Derek]

The Isaiah Berlin Virtual Library