The First and Last Freedom

The First and Last Freedom is a book by 20th-century Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti Template:Lifespan. Originally published in 1954 with a comprehensive foreword by Aldous Huxley, it was instrumental in broadening Krishnamurti's audience and exposing his ideas. It was one of the first Krishnamurti titles in the world of mainstream, commercial publishing, where its success helped establish him as a viable author. The book also established a format frequently used in later Krishnamurti publications, in which he presents his ideas on various interrelated issues, followed by discussions with one or more participants. As of 2022 several editions of the work had been published, in print and digital media.

Background

Following his dismantling of the World Teacher Project in Template:Dash year, Jiddu Krishnamurti embarked on a new international speaking career as an independent, unconventional philosopher.Template:Sfn During World War II he remained at his residence in Ojai, California, in relative isolation.Template:Sfn English author Aldous Huxley lived nearby; he met Krishnamurti in 1938,Template:Sfn and the two men became close friends.Template:Sfnm Huxley encouraged Krishnamurti to write,Template:Sfn and also introduced his work to Harper, Huxley's own publisher. This eventually led to the addition of Krishnamurti in the publisher's roster of authors;Template:NnbspTemplate:Refn until that time Krishnamurti works were published by small or specialist presses, or in-house by a variety of Krishnamurti-related Template:Nobr

About the work

As is the case with most Krishnamurti texts, the book consists of edited excerpts from his public talks and discussions; it includes examinations of subjects that were, or became, recurrent themes in his exposition:Template:NnbspTemplate:Sfnm the nature of the selfTemplate:Spaced en dash and of belief, investigations into fear and desire, the relationship between thinker and thought, the concept of choiceless awareness, the function of the mind, etc. Following an introductory chapter by Krishnamurti, each of twenty interrelated topics is covered in its own chapter. A second part ("Questions and Answers") consists of 38 named segments, taken from question-and-answer sessions between Krishnamurti and his audience; the segments broadly pertain to the topics covered in the book's first part. The work was edited (without attribution) by D. Rajagopal, Krishnamurti's thenTemplate:En dashclose associate, editor, and business manager; the included extracts were taken from "Verbatim Reports" of Krishnamurti talks between 1947 and 1952.Template:Sfn

Huxley provided a ten-page foreword as comprehensive introduction to Krishnamurti's philosophy, an essay that "no doubt contributed to Template:Interp credibility and sales potentialTemplate:"-Template:Sfnm and he may have also influenced the overall structure and style of the work. He had read a thenTemplate:En dashrecent Krishnamurti book in 1941Template:NnbspTemplate:Refn and was favorably impressed, especially with a section consisting of dialogues and question-and-answer sessions between Krishnamurti and his listenersTemplate:Spaced en dash a practice that normally followed his lectures.Template:Sfnm Huxley thought they enlivened Krishnamurti's philosophical subjects, and suggested a similar format for the forthcoming book, which also became a common type of presentation in later Krishnamurti Template:Nobr

A commentator summarized that in this and other books "Krishnamurti emphasized the importance of release from entrapment in the 'network of thought' through a perceptual process of attention, observation or 'choiceless awareness' which would release the true perception of reality without mediation of any authority, or guru.Template:"-Template:Sfn Another stated that it was instrumental in making Krishnamurti and his ideas known to a wider audience, as the "first substantial statement of his philosophy to be issued by major publishing houses in Britain and the United States";Template:NnbspTemplate:Sfn noting the work's popularity among the college-age young, others added that the book "anticipated the preoccupations of an up-and-coming youth culture, Template:Nobr perhaps helped to form Template:Nobr

As in practically every work of hisTemplate:Sfn Krishnamurti did not present this book as containing "a doctrine to be believed, but as an invitation to others to investigate and validate its truth for Template:Nobr Template:Quote

Publication history

The book was originally published in Template:Nobr by Harper in the US and by Gollancz in the UK.Template:Sfnm In the US, it was the second Krishnamurti-authored book to be published by a mainstream commercial publisherTemplate:Spaced en dash unlike in other markets, where this would be the first such publication.Template:Refn Copyright was held by Krishnamurti Writings (KWINC), the organization then responsible for promoting Krishnamurti's work worldwide;Template:NnbspTemplate:Refn publishing rights were transferred to new Krishnamurti-related organizations in the mid-1970s (the Krishnamurti foundations), and in Template:Nobr to Krishnamurti Publications (K Publications), an entity with overall responsibility for publishing his works Template:Nobr

The book was "an immediate success" and was in its 6th impression by the end of 1954;Template:NnbspTemplate:Sfnm a 2015 reprint of Template:Citeref was the edition's Template:Nobr Opening to good reviews, it proved to be a "compelling entry" into publishing, helping to establish Krishnamurti as a viable author in the commercial publishing arena.Template:Sfn Unlike the editions of the Template:Nobr later editions of the work (such as one ), may include a variety of Krishnamurti photographs on the front cover. A digital edition in several e-book formats was first published by HarperCollins e-Books in 2010 Template:See below.

About a third of the work was included in The Penguin Krishnamurti Reader, a 1970 compilation edited by Krishnamurti biographer Mary Lutyens that was also a commercial and critical success.Template:Refn In addition, Penguin Books through its Ebury Publishing division published a new edition of The First and Last Freedom in 2013, with an edition-specific Preface. This was marketed as a mass market paperback by the division's Rider imprint Template:See below, and as an e-book by its digital media Template:Nobr

As of 2022, according to one source there had been 95 editions in several formats by a variety of publishers, published in eight languages.Template:Refn Several years prior the work had also been made available as a freely readable electronic document through Template:Vanchor, the official Jiddu Krishnamurti online Template:Nobr

Select editions

• Reprints of this edition may have different covers and author photographs.

Reception

A Krishnamurti biographer wrote that Huxley's foreword "set the mood to take the work very seriously", and another stated that by the end of Template:Nobr the book was responsible for attracting larger audiences to Krishnamurti's talks.Template:Sfnm Jean Burden, in a sympathetic 1959 article in the Prairie Schooner, partly attributed the increased interest in Krishnamurti to the book, while stating that as it was compiled from his "famous talks", it "suffered, as most compilations do, from repetitiveness and lack of structure.Template:"-Template:Sfn Yet Anne Morrow Lindbergh reputedly found Template:"'the sheer simplicity of what he Template:Interp has to Template:Nobr Template:Nobr

Kirkus Reviews described it as a "clear and intriguing presentation of a point of view which will appeal to many who are finding the more traditional approaches to truth to be blind alleys.Template:"-Template:Sfn A review at The Atlanta Journal and the Atlanta Constitution contended that Krishnamurti's thinking "has the practical ring. It is so clear, so straightforward that the reader feels a challenge in every page".Template:Sfn In contrast, The Times of India characterized the work's basic message as unoriginal and added that Krishnamurti's utterances have "a fluid ambiguity and an almost insidious plausibility", before concluding that the work is "all Template:Em without Template:Em, and in the present context appears to be mere Template:Nobr

The Times Literary Supplement stated that for those who regard conflict "as an unchangeable condition of human life and truth, Krishnamurti's teaching will seem to offer a delusive short-cut to a vaguely beatific freedom. But there is nothing vague about it. It is precise and penetrating." The reviewer thinks that Krishnamurti presents "a reinterpretation of the wisdom of his Template:Nobr though he has rediscovered it for himself.Template:"-Template:Sfn However J. M. Cohen reviewing the book for The Observer (London) wrote, "Krishnamurti is an entirely independent master" adding, "Template:Interpor those who wish to listen, this book will have a value beyond Template:Nobr

The book's publication brought Krishnamurti and his ideas to the attention of practicing and theoretical psychotherapists, setting the stage for later dialogue between Krishnamurti and professionals in this field.Template:Sfnm It was also responsible for Krishnamurti's long and fruitful relationship with theoretical physicist David Bohm, whose unorthodox approach to problems of physics and of consciousness often correlated with Krishnamurti's philosophical Template:Nobr

The work was mentioned in education-related dissertations as early as Template:NobrTemplate:NnbspTemplate:Sfn it continued to be cited by educational researchers in the following decades.Template:Sfnm It has also interested researchers in psycholinguistics, drawing favorable remarks about Krishnamurti's views regarding the Template:Nobr between the thinker and the thought";Template:NnbspTemplate:Sfn and has featured in discussion of the relationship between general semantics and other Template:Nobr

Among other fields, the book has been cited by occupational therapy papers,Template:Sfn articles on medical ethics,Template:Sfn and in original research of contemporary spirituality.Template:Sfn But also in essays "on the social implications of the 'death of utopiaTemplate:'",Template:Sfn and in addresses to professional geography conferences.Template:Sfn It has been quoted in influential works on mediaTemplate:Sfn and has been commended as an aid to successful investment strategies.Template:Sfn Meanwhile, more than half a century after original publication, articles in general-interest mediaTemplate:Spaced en dashfor example, articles on meditation and mindfulness, favorably featured or mentioned the Template:Nobr

The work has inspired artistic endeavors: it has been suggested that it influenced Huxley's writing of the 1962 novel Template:Italics correctionTemplate:NnbspTemplate:Sfn while a 2014 painting exhibition in London was described as "derived from two alternative perspectives: the introduction by Aldous Huxley in the book of his long-term colleague and friend, Jiddu Krishnamurti and Krishnamurti's second major opus, The First and Last Freedom".Template:Sfnm The book has also prompted comparisons between Krishnamurti's philosophy and Emily Dickinson's poetry,Template:Sfn and has informed the way art therapy professionals approach their Template:Nobr

As of Template:Circa, according to one of several official Krishnamurti-related foundations, The First and Last Freedom had "sold more copies than any other Krishnamurti Template:Nobr

See also

• Jiddu Krishnamurti bibliography

References

• Template:Cite magazine

• Template:Cite thesis

• Template:Cite magazine

• Template:Cite magazine

• Template:Cite magazine

• .

• Template:Cite magazine

• Template:Cite magazine

• Template:Cite magazine

• .

• .