Welcome to Aeon's archive week. Every so often we like to give the spotlight to a selection of past, outstanding Aeon essays. This time, we’re celebrating essays that have led to successful books. Below you'll find a link to these essays, as well as an exclusive quote from the author.

From this Essay, Emily Herring went on to have success with her book Herald of a Restless World: How Henri Bergson Brought Philosophy to the People (2024).

‘Writing for Aeon offered me a space to shape and refine my ideas while being held to a high standard of clarity. This gave me confidence and focus when putting together my book proposal and carried through into writing the book itself. The chapter on "Laughter" in Herald of a Restless World is drawn almost entirely from my Aeon essay, and it set the tone for the other chapters, which I tried to approach with the same depth and precision, without sacrificing readability.’

– Emily Herring

From this Idea, Philip Goff went on to have success with his book Galileo’s Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness (2019).

‘This essay was one of the first times I'd tried to put my academic work in a form that could be understood by a broader audience. The positive response was one of the reasons I went on, two years later, to publish a book length version of the case for panpsychism - Galileo's Error. Everything is so specialised now, it's more important than ever to reach out beyond narrow disciplinary boundaries, and I wish more academics took the time to do this.’

– Philip Goff