Michael W. Young. Malinowski: Odyssey of an Anthropologist 1884–1920. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.

Extract

Ever since the 1967 posthumous publication of parts of Malinowski's field diaries (A Diary in the Strict Sense of the Term), the legendary ethnographer has been the subject of a dual fascination—of interest because of both his pioneering ethnographic work and also for what we learned from his diaries about his complex psyche. The disparity between Malinowski's productive public persona and his tormented private soul has puzzled anthropologists ever since. Now, with the publication of Michael Young's Malinowski: Odyssey of an Anthropologist, 1884–1920, we need no longer rely on our own flights of fancy to imagine the totality of Malinowski.