Phaidon's best know title, The Story of Art first published in 1950, had its origins in the mundane: a chance meeting between Horovitz and Ernst H. Gombrich on the top deck of a London bus. A fellow pre-war refugee from Vienna, Gombrich was a research fellow teaching at the Warburg Institute. It was inspiration on the part of Horovitz to persuade him to write a one-volume survey of the history of art, and to encourage a reluctant author to persevere (Horovitz refused to take back the advance when Gombrich got cold feet).

Willy Aubert

(Primaire)