Saturday 5 November 1997 marks the 25th anniversary of the death of Isaiah Berlin
Isaiah Berlin was born in Riga on 6 June 1909. He died in Oxford on Wednesday 5 November 1997, and is buried in Wolvercote Cemetery, in north Oxford.
See also the tribute on the website of Halban Publishers.
In a letter to Arthur Schlesinger, 12 July 1978, IB reflected on his mortality: 'Pain I am afraid of, but death not much. On the other hand, I do not at all wish to die; I am full of curiosity. I have no wish to act; I am a natural observer – unkind persons might say voyeur – of history; but I simply long to know what happens next. What will happen to the Soviet Union, what to China, what to Israel? How will it all end? Who will do what? I want to know about the twenty-second and twenty-third centuries, and far beyond [...]'.
In the same letter to Schlesinger, published in Affirming (p. 81), IB wrote of his admiration for the Soviet dissident, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Andrey Sakharov - pictured here with IB at Headington House, Oxford, 21 June 1989 - the day on which Sakharov was awarded an hon. DSc by the University.
