Education, editing and intellectual exchange
Born at Ilsenburg in Germany in 1852, Carus studied at Strasbourg and Tübingen, receiving his doctorate in 1876. Military service and school teaching preceded his American publishing career. He became editor of Open Court in 1887 and married Mary Hegeler the following year. Their family life was centred in La Salle, Illinois.
The Open Court and The Monist provided forums for philosophy, mathematics and religion. Carus corresponded with figures including Charles S. Peirce, Bertrand Russell and Ernst Mach, while collaboration with the young D. T. Suzuki contributed to his presentation of Buddhist and Taoist traditions to American readers. He sought a conception of religion compatible with scientific understanding and a unified order of nature. He died in 1919, leaving both a substantial bibliography and an influential network of publishing relationships.
An illustrated history guided by a philosophical argument
The 1900 Open Court History of the Devil and the Idea of Evil ranges across ancient religions, Christian traditions, witch prosecutions and literature. Its opening chapter argues for movement beyond dualistic explanations towards a unified conception of the world. This philosophical destination shapes the materials Carus brings together.
The illustration list names museum objects, paintings, manuscript images and earlier publications. Their makers and original settings differ, while Carus gives their reproductions roles in a comparative argument. A hostile image, a literary devil and a religious object therefore supply different kinds of evidence. Following the captions and surrounding prose reveals both the historical representations and the author’s effort to connect them. The book records an ambitious interpretation of evil as well as the resources and assumptions of its early twentieth-century compiler.
