Montaigne, Eric Hoffer and Novacek’s Border Crossings

Today, February 28 is the birthday of French philosopher Michel de Montaigne, born in Perigord, Bordeaux, France in 1533.  Montaigne was an influential writer of the French Renaissance, considered the creator of the personal essay as a literary genre. He became famous for his merging of serious intellectual exercises with anecdotes and autobiography. Montaigne influenced such people as William Shakespeare, Rene Descartes, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Eric Hoffer.

In 2013, BORDER CROSSINGS: Coming of Age in the Czech Resistance by Charles Novacek, was recognized as a 2013 Montaigne Medal Finalist in The Eric Hoffer Awards for Excellence in Independent Publishing. http://bit.ly/1jFOiUg. Montaigne Medal books are considered to be thought-provoking books that either illuminate, progress or redirect thought and are given in honor of the great philosopher Michel de Montaigne.

The Hoffer Awards judges commented on BORDER CROSSINGS:

“In this well articulated memoir, Charles Novacek pays tribute to the heroes of his past. . . Courageous and inquisitive, our hero comes to age through the horrors of World War II, spends his tumultuous youth fighting Communism, and finds peace in a land away from home. Like many before him, coming to America becomes an act of self preservation, not an abandonment of the homeland. Part memoir and part history lesson, this book captures a time long gone, with moments of normalcy and love in the midst of suffering and struggle. . . This book [BORDER CROSSINGS] makes an important contribution to the literature of World War II and communism in Eastern Europe.