Lord C. P. Snow

Douglas Cooper and George O’Brien interview the author and physicist Lord C. P. Snow, together with Dr. George Pepper, former philosophy chair, and Dr. Raymond Porter, former English chair at Iona College.

They cover a broad range of topics. Dr. Porter’s questions focus mostly on Lord Snow’s novels. They discuss Lord Snow’s attitudes towards modernist literature—he has much respect for Proust, but finds Joyce rather pedantic—and try to figure out what exactly drove him to write a series of books in a time when such series were seemingly out of fashion. They also discuss the character of his prose and his reactions to criticism.

Doug Cooper asks Lord snow how autobiographical his books are, since they focus on a man who moves from physics to novel writing, to which he replies that they are not autobiographical. He always knew he would be a writer, but had to make money first.

Dr. Pepper asks some specific questions about his philosophical views, and they discuss American politics, especially the tendency of the United States, and all western countries, towards isolationism. Lord Snow also dismisses much continental philosophy, arguing that men like Kierkegaard and Heidegger over-romanticize humanity.

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The Douglas P. Cooper Distinguished Contemporaries Collection (1967-1974) contains rare interviews with influential writers, statesmen, artists, songwriters, journalists and others who have left their mark on our culture.

The Origins of The Cooper Collection

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