The Best of All Possible Worlds

“It’s hard to imagine how the great German polymath Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz packed his dizzying array of accomplishments, inventions, wanderings, and insights into one life. Now renowned intellectual historian and director of the Leibniz Archives Michael Kempe has distilled that wonderous life into a mere seven days. With humor, intelligence, and lively prose, Kempe carefully builds these seven slices of life into a breathtaking portrait of one of the most fascinating and impactful minds of the early modern world.” – William Egginton, author of The Rigor of Angels: Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality“A unique biography about one of the world’s most brilliant polymaths.” – Kirkus Reviews”[A] first-rate presentation of Leibniz’s complex system of ideas and breathes life into a figure of august remoteness… captures the kaleidoscopic quality of Leibniz’s thought… Leibniz emerges as a cracked genius, prone to inscrutable philosophical speculations but capable of almost prophetic insights into the future.” – Jeffrey Collins - Wall Street Journal

Michael Kempe is the director of the Leibniz Research Center and the Leibniz-Archiv in Hannover and teaches early modern history at the University of Konstanz.

Marshall Yarbrough is a writer, musician, and German-to-English translator. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.