Description This collection of essays highlights the influence of Swedish visionary Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) on art, spirituality, and culture. Opening with an essay by Spanish-language writer and metaphysician Jorge Luis Borges, from which the collection draws its name, the volume includes a description of Swedenborg’s influence on Fyodor Dostoevsky by Czeslaw Milosz; a look at Swedenborg from a mystical perspective from Wilson Van Dusen; the transcendentalist connection with Ralph Waldo Emerson in an essay by Eugene Taylor; and Buddhist scholar D. T. Suzuki’s description of the similarities between Swedenborg’s philosophy and Buddhism. Kathleen Raine’s essay on Swedenborg’s poetic influence and Colin Wilson’s essay about the psychological perspective on Swedenborg’s visions round out the collection.
