ABSTRACT
An independent man of letters in an era of professional philosophers, Bryan Magee wrote extensively about the personal origins of his philosophic interests and activities. The emotions and subjectivities of his early years helped shape a polymath whose deep absorption in culture and compulsive need to communicate created a unique figure in modern Britain. This article analyses Magee’s personal narratives of both isolation and connection. It shows why and how he brought philosophers to a larger audience and a new public to philosophy.
