THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS EVER WRITTEN.: The History of Thought from Ancient Times to Today

New York: Barnes & Noble, 1998. Hardbound in very good condition in a very good dust jacket.. 498 pages. Seymour-Smith is extraordinarily erudite, exhibiting an encyclopedic grasp of virtually every area of knowledge. From the I Ching, The Iliad and The Upanishads to Gurdjieff, Wittgenstein and B.F. Skinner, he has selected 100 books and/or authors that have significantly influenced the human paradigm (he includes T.S. Kuhn for making 'paradigm' a significant concept). In addition to including Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, number 94 chronologically, he refers to aspects of Gurdjieff's teaching in the context of other influential works where he sees a correlation, in the Enneads of Plotinus, The Kabbalah and Soren Kierkegard. By 'Most Influential' Seymour-Smith does not mean great. He means significantly affecting human thought and perspective. He includes several authors he considers lacking in depth or insight, charlatan, even odious, due too his perception of their, misguided and unfortunate, significant influence.