Mind-Energy [Signed] [L'Energie sprituelle; Signee] [Mind Energy] by Bergson - 1920: Lectures and Essays

London: Macmillan and Co., 1920. First UK edition. Hardcover. Very Good. A Very Good copy of the first UK edition, first printing (also being the first edition of this work in English translation) in the Publisher's original blue cloth (expected light rubbing at the spine ends and at the board corners, offsetting to the two front, non-textual, pages), no dust jacket, SIGNED BY HENRI BERGSON on the title page. Bergson was a major, and controversial, French Philosopher and one of "The Select Forty" of the Académie française. He won the 1927 Nobel Prize in Literature in, as the Committee stated: "recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas and the brilliant skill with which they have been presented." (Interestingly, in 1927, the Committee for Literature determined that none of that year's nominees met the requirements for the Prize in Literature specified by Alfred Nobel. Consequently, and in accordance with its then-applicable rules, the Committee reserved the 1927 Nobel Prize in Literature for one year, and, in 1928, awarded the 1927 Prize to Bergson.) "Mind-Energy", presents a collection of Lectures and Essays chosen by Bergson to illustrate his concept that reality is primarily a spiritual activity (i.e. that, in seeking to understand reality, immediate experience and intuition are more important and useful tools than are rationalism and science). Bergson carefully reviewed and edited this work to ensure that his ideas lost none of their power and clarity in the translation. First edition copies of this collection of Bergson's Lectures and Essays in English Translation, as well as in the original French, are surprisingly scarce. (A review of the Auction language shows only 3 copies of the book coming to auction since 1921, the last of them appearing at auction in 1960.) Signed copies of any of Bergson's works in any language are quite scarce as well, and signed copies of his works in English translation are absolute hen's teeth. A collection of Lectures and Essays from Henri Bergson, one of the 20th Centuries most influential thinkers and winner of the 1927 Nobel Prize in Literature, SIGNED BY HENRI BERGSON. RARE.