Selected Letters of John Holt

One of the best-known educational critics of recent times, Holt, who died in 1985, carried on voluminous correspondence with people from all walks of life. As collected here, his often lengthy, unconstrained letters to peers in educational reform, such as Ivan Illich and Jonathan Kozol, or to inquiring college students and parents reveal a man passionate in his effort to seek for himself and others ``life worth living and work worth doing.'' We also discover the thinking and the motivation behind such seminal books as How Children Fail and The Underachieving School. An iconoclast and radical challenger of the educational establishment, Holt declared himself a happy man, confident of mission and, above all, at ease with children. The letters, filling in the background of his engaged life, will be welcomed by Holt's disciples. (Oct.)