Diderot’s 300th Birthday

Dean of the Arts and Humanities and Director of Curricular Initiatives Andrew Curran spoke to NPR’s Weekend Edition about Denis Diderot, on the 18th century French philosopher’s 300th birthday. Curran said Diderot’s Encyclopedie, with over 20,000 copies in print, were among the most widely distributed and influential books of the era. “Commercially the encyclopedia did extremely well. Diderot himself made very little money off the whole project, but the publishers became extremely rich.”

Curran is also professor of French.