Martin Heidegger is one of the few major philosophers who was also a shedworker (see here for more on him and his Hütte and the book pictured above by Adam Sharr which is marvellous) although this aspect of his lifestyle is often sadly overlooked. Thank heavens then for this lovely piece by Walter Nicklin in The Washington Post about his Black Forest pilgrimmage to Heidegger's writing shed. Here's a snippet:
In a meadow surrounded by trees, it was all but invisible. No wonder I had first missed it! Unverborgenheit, or “unconcealment,” is a word Heidegger coined for the sudden discovery of truth, as if stumbling upon a clearing in a forest. I left the manicured trail for an overgrown path laced with electrified fencing (to keep cattle from wandering). On hands and knees to duck under one set of wires, I couldn’t help but laugh as I thought of the celebrated Heidegger trope of the woodcutter’s labors seeking to hack out a path to the clearing, to the bright “thereness of what is.”
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