The twentieth century - with its unprecedented advances in technology and scient
ific understanding - saw the birth of a distinctively new and 'modern' age. Henr
i Bergson stood as one of the most important philosophical voices of that tumult
uous time. An intellectual celebrity in his own life time, his work was widely d
iscussed by such thinkers as William James, Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand
Russell, as well as having a profound influence on modernist writers such as Wal
lace Stevens, Willa Cather and Wyndham Lewis and later thinkers, most notably Gi
lles Deleuze.