Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Key texts by the father of existentialism in Lee M. Hollander's classic translation, including Diapsalmata, In Vino Veritas and Fear and Trembling, with an introduction to his life and ideas.

Søren Kierkegaard

Also known as The Gay Science, this is the book where Nietzsche first declares that God is dead. Its aphorisms on truth, morality and living fully are a cornerstone of existentialist thought.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Unamuno's masterpiece explores the conflict between reason and faith, and our deep hunger for immortality. A passionate, very personal work that anticipated many of the great themes of 20th-century existentialism.

Miguel de Unamuno

Sharp aphorisms against rationalism and rigid systems, with a foreword by D. H. Lawrence. Shestov defends doubt, freedom and the individual, ideas that later shaped Camus and the existentialists.

Lev Shestov

Stirner's radical defense of the individual rejects God, the state and every abstract ideal that tries to rule over the self. A provocative forerunner of existentialism, in Steven T. Byington's classic translation.

Max Stirner