Ernest Becker

About the author

Ernest Becker (1924–1974) was an American cultural anthropologist best known for *The Denial of Death*, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Born in Springfield and dying in Vancouver at the age of 49, Becker left a concentrated but influential body of work exploring how the awareness of mortality shapes human behavior and culture. His Pulitzer-winning book remains his defining achievement, cementing his reputation as a thinker who brought anthropological and psychological insight to bear on one of existence's most fundamental anxieties.