In Memoriam: Oscar Haac
Oscar Haac passed away in 2000, worn down by a grave and cruel illness. A specialist of Michelet, also a student of Lamennais, Pierre Leroux, Victor Cousin and Saint-Simon, he took part in several Sandian colloquia. He sympathized with the spirituality and the mindset of Forty-eight, this religious mindset that enlivens writers working for political and religious freedom. A reader of Sand, he was the only one who could evaluate his position on the map of the living philosophy of his time. He had just published, with the support of Michèle Hecquet, a critical edition of Spiridon with Slatkine. It is a great mind, open and generous who left us. Among his last works figure the publication of a large portion of his lectures on Michelet at the Collège de France, in the edition directed by Paul Viallaneix, whom he met in France after taking part in the 1944 Normandy landings. He could also complete a condensed presentation of Lamennais’ thought and a study on the youth of Victor Cousin. In 1998, he once again came from the U.S. to Vascueil to attend the colloquium organized by Simone Bernard-Griffiths to celebrate the bicentennial of Michelet. We miss him; we regret the great researcher, a bright and generous mind. (Based on Michèle Hecquet, Bulletin of the Friends of George Sand, 2001).