Tony Judt

I read in the Observer today that Tony Judt, historian, teacher, writer- died after a two-year struggle with motor neuron disease. He struck me as incredibly clear and unsentiment in his writings. What particularly struck me in this article was:

'In an email correspondence published in the July edition of Prospect magazine, Judt discussed how, lying awake at night trapped in his body, he would review his life and prepare for dictating a series of highly personal essays published in the NYRB shortly before he died.

The process was cathartic, he said. "I don't think I enjoyed living as much as I should have done – too busy thinking about it all the time. So now I am enjoying thinking about it (which is a different sort of thinking) and getting as close to enjoying it in the moment as retrieved memory will permit."'

And-

'On dying: The meaning of our life ... is only incorporated in the way other people feel about us. Once I die, my life will acquire meaning in the way they see whatever it is I did, for them, for the world, the people I've known. New York magazine, 7 March'

For fuller articles about this incredible man, please go to:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/07/historian-tony-judt-dies