Maurice Blanchot (1907–2003) is one of the most influential and original thinkers of the 20th century, leaving behind a rich artistic and philosophical legacy. In his last book during his lifetime, Blanchot included four works spanning four decades of his career and dedicated to writers and thinkers with whom he had close ties of personal and intellectual friendship: Louis-René Deforet, Rene Char, Paul Celan and Michel Foucault. This edition also includes homages by Blanchot to his other like-minded people - Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jacques Derrida, Samuel Beckett and Denis Mascolo; In addition, the book includes one of Foucault’s most important early works, which places Blanchot’s work in a broad historical and philosophical context.