Of the numerous biographical publications on the most problematic of 20th-century philosophers, Hugo Ott's Martin Heidegger: Toward his Biography stands out as the most detailed and scrupulously accurate. But caveat lector: there is a great deal here that we would not think of as conduct becoming a philosopher or the academic profession in general. It cannot have been an easy book to write, and it is not an easy book to read.

LRB 20 April 1989 | PDF Download