Winner of the Pulitzer prize in 1974 and the culmination of a life’s work, [i]The Denial of Death[/i] is Ernest Becker’s brilliant and impassioned answer to the «why» of human existence. In bold contrast to the predominant Freudian school of thought, Becker tackles the problem of the vital lie — man’s refusal to acknowledge his own mortality. In doing so, he sheds new light on the nature of humanity and issues a call to life and its living that still resonates more than twenty years after its writing.