Lee Eisler

From Philosopedia

Lee Eisler, a 1995 photo by his wife, Jan Eisler

Eisler, Lee (2 November 1909 - 22 April 1998)

Eisler was born in New York City, the son of a food merchant/broker and a homemaker. He had a brother (Edward) and a sister (Nanette Scofield, who in 1968 co-wrote with Betty Klarman So You Want To Go Back To Work!).

A graduate of Dartmouth, he married Miriam Eisler and, after her death, Jan Loeb Eisler. They had no children.

Active in advertising in New York City, Eisler was a wordsmith, a craftsman who wrote precisely and lucidly.

He was a founding member of the Bertrand Russell Society, a key individual responsible for that group’s international success. His aim was to further research concerning Russell as well as publicize Russell’s timeless views. For decades, he edited the society’s definitive newsletter. Computer literate during a time that computers were a mystery to most, he wrote concisely and was a stickler for details.

Eisler was an active member of the New York Secular Humanist Society.

In 1971, he wrote Morals Without Mystery: A Liberating Alternative to Established Morality Based on Bertrand Russell's Views.

One of his useful works is The Quotable Bertrand Russell (1993), which presents the British philosopher’s thinking on a number of topics of continuing interest. Eisler pored over Russell’s books along with numerous articles and countless newspaper and magazine stories, outlining the material around questions. For example, he asks, “What is the basic problem in Africa?” or “How can a child be taught to love its parents?” or “What’s wrong with St. Paul’s views on marriage and sex?” Eisler then lists Russell’s written answers, giving the reader the satisfying experience of feeling that Russell is present and is answering questions that it would take a person ages to find if forced to read all eighty-nine books that Russell wrote during his ninety-eight years.

His wife and a fellow atheist, Jan Loeb Eisler, was on the Bertrand Russell Society's Board of Directors 1997 to 1999 and 2000 to 2002.

Eisler ended his productive life comfortably in Florida, stricken however with Alzheimer's. The immediate cause of his death was pneumonia.

(See entry for Jan Loeb Eisler.)

(1995 photo by Linda Egendorf)

{WAS, numerous conversations}