The Letters of Teilhard De Chardin and Lucile Swan (English and French Edition)

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. Teilhard - later a collaborator in the discovery of Peking Man - had been sent to China to concentrate on scientific research when his more philosophical writings were not well received by Church authorities. His works became famous and widely influential when they were eventually published, many only after his death. This first evening together began a remarkable friendship that lasted for twenty-five years and was recorded in their correspondence now available for the first time. Swan both supported and challenged Teilhard, and he in turn encouraged her religious quest. She came to share many of his ideas but had difficulty understanding his celibacy and Catholicism. In response, he explained his life to her. This volume tells their story in their own words.
The years of their friendship coincided with one of the most fertile periods of Teilhard's life. As he wrote his most influential work, The Phenomenon of Man, they discussed it section by section. The complete extant text of more than 200 letters from Teilhard to Swan, with selections from her letters and personal writings - all previously unpublished - offer new insight into the life of one of the century's most persuasive intellectual figures. The letters illuminate the creative process, as he works out key ideas over months and even years, and reveal his efforts to integrate his ideas and his actions. Most notably, he strove to be true to his vows while responding to the affirmation of life Lucile offered. Finally, the letters contain a wealth of detail about his everyday life.
In addition to the letters, this book also includes personal reflections on this collaboration by Pierre Leroy, a Jesuit and close friend of Teilhard, and by Mary Wood Gilbert, a cousin and close friend of Swan. Thomas M. King, S.J., has written an essay on "Teilhard and the Feminine," and Karl Schmitz-Moorman has written a note on Teilhard's text.