Buy used:
$34.50
$3.99 delivery May 17 - 24. Details
Used: Good | Details
Sold by Friday Afternoon Books
Condition: Used: Good
Comment: This is a used textbook in fair condition with writing and underlining to the text. Book has minor bending to the spine. Bumping and slight peeling to the top and bottom of the spine. Light curling to the corners of the covers. Scuffing and shelfwear to the covers and spine. Rubbing and faint markings to the edges of the pages. Fine for class or reading copy.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Letters of Teilhard de Chardin and Lucile Swan Paperback – Illustrated, April 30, 2005

by Mary Gilbert (Author), Thomas King (Author)
4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 8 ratings
See all formats and editions
In 1929, the noted French paleontologist and Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin met Lucile Swan, an American sculptor at a dinner party in Peking. This first evening together began a remarkable friendship that lasted for twenty-five years and was recorded in their correspondence. This volume tells their story in their own words.
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    315 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    University of Scranton Press
  4. Publication date
    April 30, 2005
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    094086696X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0940866966
  8. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Scranton Press; Illustrated edition (April 30, 2005)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 315 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 094086696X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0940866966
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.22 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 8 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
4.8 out of 5
8 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Edgar Paternina
5.0 out of 5 stars LOVE, A HIGHER FORM OF HUMAN ENERGY
Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2012
Verified Purchase
When reading Sketch of a Personalistic Universe, and specially about The Sexual Sense in the Human Energy and, of course, these beautiful letters between Teilhard and Lucile Swan, we really understand his writings about the love between a man and a woman, as Teilhard was fully aware of the power of "the feminine", the force of attraction towards union, not only among human beings but for the whole universe. In fact Lucile wrote:

"...He was amused to say he had produce another 'egg'. And he always said it was my work too. This, of course, made me very proud and happy...He had no need to insist on 'me' or 'mine'. It was the idea that was important." Being another 'egg' a new assay, and even his most famous work as well.

It seems their relationship was so of a higher order as to generate another kind of children, not physical ones, one of them being, The Phenomenon of Man, his most influential work. I just wonder if they used a combined technique of sex and nonsex liaison in this case, without having "real sex", as...For Lucile, physical consummation was fundamental to the love between a man and a woman...Teilhard's consistent and continual response was a rejection of this point of view...I once asked Lucile if indeed there ever had been a physical consummation. She replied, "Never."
11 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Wands
5.0 out of 5 stars Arrived Early, Carefully Packaged and in Excellent Condition
Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2022
Verified Purchase
This out of print, used book arrived with only a tiny dent in the upper left hand corner. Otherwise in excellent condition. Quite a good find for the price. Thank you!
Helpful
 Report
Marta Lawson
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and sad book
Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2014
Verified Purchase
Beautiful and sad book. So much to learn from Father Theilhard De Chardin . Wish I could have met them. It's a book to have and to hold.
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2015
Verified Purchase
I am very happy with this book
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Blossom
3.0 out of 5 stars Paperback price starts at over SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS.
Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2016
NOTE: This book is out of print. Luckily, I was able to access a copy FOR FREE, from The Ohio State University library.
___________________________________

I honestly cannot understand how Annie Dillard, who chronicled the de Chardin/Swan love story in her beautiful book, For the Time Being, could have read this compilation and concluded that de Teilhard and Swan were in love at the end of his life. After war, long separations, and the spell cast on de Chardin by the snotty ex-wife of a close friend, Teilhard's once deep feelings for Swan had long dried up. Instead of "you are my light" "I love you" and ruminations on what it felt like to stand at the front gate of her Peking home and pine for her when she was not in town, we get smatterings of rote "Dearests" and constant (apparently cruelly oblivious) mentions of her replacement's name(!). No. At the end, the lovely Miss Swan was rowing the love boat all alone, and she was desperately aware of it.

Swan's letters to de Chardin where she all but begged him to love her again as he had so long ago in Peking are terribly heartbreaking, more so because in his responses he pretty much ignored her questions, intentionally failing to address her agitation, in an apparent attempt to keep a lid on the percolating panic of this woman he'd long ceased to (chastely!) desire. He was so over her, was very aware she still loved him, and he just didn't want to deal with the mess he made.

Swan suffered and sacrificed everything for de Chardin, loving him deeply and completely till the end of her days. But only after a long illness and in the final moments of his life did de Chardin ask his Jesuit brothers to bring Lucille to him. What words transpired at that meeting we will never know.
____________________________

Three stars because a) I really needed to see ALL her letters to him, b) Need those letters she destroyed because she thought they'd give people "the wrong idea" and c) Because I truly feel that de Chardin is a terribly cruel and narcissistic man. None of these things are the fault of the people who got all this published and, while I am EXTREMELY grateful I could access this information thanks to them, the work suffers for what's not here.
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Theresa McDonald
5.0 out of 5 stars Who ever really understands another?
Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2021
Verified Purchase
I found this a very interesting exchange between two people who are communicating through the years but misunderstanding each other through all those years. How sad that our emotions and thoughts and needs blind us to the emotions, thoughts and needs of others.
Helpful
 Report