More Building - supplementary letters 1960-1975

An online selection of the more significant letters to have emerged since the publication of Building: Letters 1960–1975 (London, 2013: Chatto and Windus; London, 2016: Pimlico)

• First posted 19 December 2019
• Latest updated (i.e. this edition) 13 June 2025

The four published volumes of Berlin's letters focus on the outgoing letters, i.e. those written by him. Where we have the other side of the correspondence, and have been able to secure the necessary copyright permission, the online supplements will now also include a selection of the more important letters written to Berlin - among them, to date, are letters from the Riga-born Harvard philosopher Judith Shklar, and the US diplomat and historian George Kennan.

• Included in this update is an interesting letter from IB to his friend, the Oxford philosopher A. J. Ayer, July 1962, on Soviet attitudes to Western thinkers: 'But I am told you have been called by an animal name – say a hyena with a typewriter – past repentance'.

To see this Supplement click 'View Document' below.