Raissa Maritain, wife of the French philosopher Jacques Maritain, recorded a most important memoir and portrait of several members of the circle of artists who were vital in the last revival of neoclassicism – which was also a revival in faith and the arts before the the first world war. Its influence continued into the 1920’s and beyond.  The artists included: Georges Rouault – painter; Paul Claudel, poet and playwright; Arthur Honegger, composer; Leon Bloy – writer and modern day prophet; Charles Peguy – writer; Jacques Maritain – philosopher and esthete; and Jacques Riviere – the publisher and critic who was the first to recognize Marcel Proust. Claudel was a close friend of the composer Darius Milhaud and collaborated with him on several important works.

Raissa Maritain, before she married Jacques, was a graduate student at the Sorbonne under Henri Bergson’s tutelage.

Raissa Maritain’s book was originally called “Les Grandes…