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Martin Buber was born in Vienna in 1878 and spent much of his childhood in Lemberg, now Lviv, in the house of his grandfather Solomon Buber, a scholar of Midrash. In 1923 he published Ich und Du, a short book in numbered sections arguing that a person meets the world in two ways: as an “It” to be used and measured, or as a “You” to be met whole. He spent decades retelling the tales of the Hasidic masters, translated the Hebrew Bible into German with Franz Rosenzweig, and in 1938 left Germany for a professorship at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature ten times. This guide covers his 13 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 13 key books · 1906–1953 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Martin Buber’s best-known book is I and Thou (Ich und Du, 1923), in English by Ronald Gregor Smith (1937) and Walter Kaufmann (1970). His other key works include Between Man and Man (1947), Tales of the Hasidim (Hebrew 1946, English 1947–48), Paths in Utopia and Eclipse of God (1952). Start with I and Thou; below is what each book argues and which translation to look for.
Where to Start with Martin Buber
If you want the book everything else grows from
→ I and Thou (1923) — short, dense, best read slowly.
If you want stories rather than argument
→ Tales of the Hasidim (1946) — hundreds of short Hasidic tales.
If you want the dialogue idea applied to teaching and society
→ Between Man and Man (1947).
If you want his politics and social thought
→ Paths in Utopia (1946) — his case for decentralised community.
13 Martin Buber Books, in Order
The Tales of Rabbi Nachman
Buber’s first book on Hasidism, Die Geschichten des Rabbi Nachman: German retellings of the stories of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav (1772–1810), the great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov. It appeared in English in 1956.
The Legend of the Baal-Shem
Die Legende des Baalschem retells legends about Israel ben Eliezer, the Baal Shem Tov, the eighteenth-century founder of Hasidism. Buber freely reshaped the sources into literary German, the approach later critics would question. English translation 1955.
Daniel
Daniel – Gespräche von der Verwirklichung: five philosophical dialogues between Daniel and a series of partners about how a person lives a unified, “realised” life rather than merely observing it. It belongs to his mystical period before I and Thou and was not translated into English until 1964.
I and Thou
Ich und Du sets out two basic word pairs, I–It and I–You: the world as objects we use and know, and the world met as a whole other being, whether a person, a tree or God, the “eternal You”. It has two standard English translations, by Ronald Gregor Smith (1937) and by Walter Kaufmann (1970), who chose “You” over “Thou”. Martin Luther King Jr. drew on its distinction in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”.
The Prophetic Faith
First published in Hebrew as Torat ha-Nevi’im (1942), with English in 1949: a reading of the Hebrew Bible, from the Song of Deborah to the prophets of the exile, as the history of a living dialogue between Israel and its God.
For the Sake of Heaven
His only novel, first serialised in Hebrew in the newspaper Davar in 1941 as Gog u-Magog and published as a book in 1943. Set among the Hasidim of Poland during the Napoleonic wars, it follows the conflict between the Seer of Lublin, who hoped the wars would hasten redemption, and his disciple the “Holy Yehudi”. English edition 1945.
Moses
Published in Hebrew as Moshe (1945), in English in 1946 and German in 1948: a study of Moses that tries to reach the historical events behind the saga of the Exodus and Sinai without dismissing the faith of those who told it.
Tales of the Hasidim
His large collection of short tales and sayings of the Hasidic masters, from the Baal Shem Tov to the nineteenth century. It came out first in Hebrew as Or ha-Ganuz (1946), in English in Olga Marx’s translation as The Early Masters (1947) and The Later Masters (1948), and in German as Die Erzählungen der Chassidim (1949).
Paths in Utopia
Written in Hebrew in 1945 and published in 1946, in English in 1949: a history of “utopian” socialism from Proudhon, Kropotkin and Gustav Landauer, set against the centralised Marxist state. Buber argues for federations of small, self-governing communities and ends with the kibbutz as an experiment that had not failed.
Between Man and Man
Ronald Gregor Smith’s 1947 English collection of the essays that carried I and Thou into practice: “Dialogue” (Zwiesprache, 1932), essays on education and on Kierkegaard’s “single one”, and “What Is Man?”, his lectures on philosophical anthropology at the Hebrew University.
Two Types of Faith
Zwei Glaubensweisen (1950; English 1951) contrasts two kinds of faith: emunah, trust in someone, which Buber finds in the Hebrew Bible and in Jesus, and pistis, belief that something is true, which he associates with Paul.
Eclipse of God
Based on lectures he gave at American universities, published in English in 1952 and in German as Gottesfinsternis (1953). Buber argues that God has not died but is hidden, as in an eclipse, and engages Heidegger, Sartre and Jung, which led to a public exchange with Jung in 1952.
Good and Evil
Two short works in one English volume: Right and Wrong, readings of five Psalms, and Images of Good and Evil (Bilder von Gut und Böse, 1952), which reads the myths of the Bible and ancient Persia to argue that evil is a failure to decide rather than a force of its own.
In What Order to Read Martin Buber
Buber did not write a system, so there is no required order, but the books fall into three strands that keep crossing: the dialogue philosophy (I and Thou, Between Man and Man, Eclipse of God), the Hasidic tales (Rabbi Nachman, The Legend of the Baal-Shem, Tales of the Hasidim, the novel For the Sake of Heaven) and the Bible studies (The Prophetic Faith, Moses, Two Types of Faith).
Read I and Thou first and then Between Man and Man, which makes the same ideas concrete. Choose your translation deliberately: Smith (1937) is closer to the cadence many readers grew up with; Kaufmann (1970) is more literal and comes with a long prologue on why he dropped “Thou”. The tales can be dipped into at any point.
A reading path
1. I and Thou (1923)
2. Between Man and Man (1947)
3. Tales of the Hasidim (1946)
4. Paths in Utopia (1946)
5. Eclipse of God (1952)
Everything Else Martin Buber Published
Beyond the 13 key books: 4 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Bible translation
1
1 book · 1925
- 1925Die Schriftthe German translation of the Hebrew Bible he began with Franz Rosenzweig in 1925 and completed in 1961
Later collections and essays
3
3 books · 1948–1965
- 1948The Way of Mana short book on Hasidic teaching, Der Weg des Menschen nach der chassidischen Lehre
- 1957Pointing the Waycollected essays on politics, education and religion
- 1965The Knowledge of Manlater essays on philosophical anthropology
The years · 1878–1965
Quick facts about Martin Buber
- Known for
- Martin Buber is known for his philosophy of dialogue, the idea that a person becomes fully human in the meeting between an I and a You.
- 1878
- Born in Vienna
- 1923
- I and Thou
- 1938
- Leaves Germany for the Hebrew University, Jerusalem
- 1953
- Peace Prize of the German Book Trade
- 1965
- Dies in Jerusalem
- Born
- 8 February 1878, Vienna; raised partly in Lemberg (Lviv) by his grandfather Solomon Buber
- Died
- 13 June 1965, Jerusalem
- Taught
- University of Frankfurt (1930–1933); Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1938
- Translation
- The Hebrew Bible into German, with Franz Rosenzweig (1925–1961)
- Honours
- Goethe Prize (1951), Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (1953), Israel Prize (1958), Erasmus Prize (1963)
- Politics
- Co-founded Brit Shalom (1925) and Ihud (1942), which argued for a binational Jewish-Arab state
The red mark is 1923: I and Thou, the book at the centre of his philosophy of dialogue.
How Martin Buber Writes: Philosophy as Meeting
I and Thou is not built like a treatise. It is a sequence of short numbered sections in three parts, closer to aphorism and prose poetry than to argument, and it repeats its two word pairs until they become the lens for everything else: love, art, institutions, God. Buber later added an afterword (1957) answering readers’ questions, which is a useful key to the book.
Much of his work is retelling rather than invention. In the Hasidic books he took tales recorded in Hebrew and Yiddish and reshaped them, sometimes heavily, into short literary pieces, choosing the anecdote that shows how a master lived over the doctrine he taught. His Bible translation with Rosenzweig works the opposite way, keeping the rhythm and word roots of the Hebrew even when the German sounds strange.
His ideas travelled well beyond philosophy. In a public dialogue in 1957 the psychologist Carl Rogers compared his person-centred therapy to the I–You relationship, and Buber pressed him on the inequality between therapist and client. Martin Luther King Jr. used the I–It idea to describe segregation as turning people into things.
Frequently asked questions about Martin Buber’s books
How many books has Martin Buber written?
Dozens, counting essay collections, Hasidic anthologies and the multi-volume Bible translation, many of which appeared in Hebrew, German and English in different years and arrangements. This page covers his 13 key books, from The Tales of Rabbi Nachman (1906) to Good and Evil (1953).
What are Martin Buber’s books in order?
The Tales of Rabbi Nachman (1906), The Legend of the Baal-Shem (1908), Daniel (1913), I and Thou (1923), The Prophetic Faith (1942), For the Sake of Heaven (1943), Moses (1945), Tales of the Hasidim (1946), Paths in Utopia (1946), Between Man and Man (1947), Two Types of Faith (1950), Eclipse of God (1952) and Good and Evil (1953). Years are of the first edition in any language; Between Man and Man collects essays first published between 1926 and 1938.
Where should I start with Martin Buber?
With I and Thou. It is short and everything else he wrote refers back to it. If you find it too dense, read a few of the Tales of the Hasidim first, then Between Man and Man, which applies the same ideas to education and everyday life.
What is Martin Buber’s most famous book?
I and Thou (Ich und Du, 1923), his account of the two attitudes a person can take to the world: I–It and I–You.
Which translation of I and Thou should I read?
There are two standard English versions: Ronald Gregor Smith’s (1937, revised 1958) and Walter Kaufmann’s (1970). Kaufmann renders the German Du as “You” because “Thou” sounds formal in English, while Du is the intimate form. Smith’s wording is the one most often quoted.
Is “I and Thou” a religious book?
Partly. Most of it is about relationships between people and with nature, but the third part argues that every real meeting with a You points towards the “eternal You”, God, who can be addressed but not described.
Was Martin Buber’s view of Hasidism controversial?
Yes. The historian Gershom Scholem argued that Buber’s Hasidism was a personal, selective interpretation: it relied on the tales while neglecting the movement’s doctrine, liturgy and religious law. Buber answered in his essay “Interpreting Hasidism”. Separately, Buber initially welcomed the First World War as a historic mission for Germany, a position he later abandoned.
What were Martin Buber’s political views?
He was a Zionist who argued from the early 1920s for a binational state shared by Jews and Arabs. He co-founded Brit Shalom in 1925 and Ihud in 1942, and in Israel he criticised David Ben-Gurion’s policies, particularly towards Arab refugees. Paths in Utopia sets out his case for decentralised, communal socialism.
Did Martin Buber win the Nobel Prize?
No. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature ten times and for the Nobel Peace Prize seven times. He did receive the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (1953), the Israel Prize (1958) and the Erasmus Prize (1963).
When did Martin Buber die?
On 13 June 1965, at his home in the Talbiya neighbourhood of Jerusalem, aged 87.
Footnotes
- Martin Buber — Wikipedia
- I and Thou — Wikipedia
- Tales of the Hasidim — Wikipedia
- Martin Buber — Encyclopedia.com (Encyclopaedia Judaica and other references)
- Between Man and Man, trans. Ronald Gregor Smith (1947) — review record, PhilArchive
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“All actual life is encounter.”
— Martin Buber, I and Thou (1923), trans. Walter Kaufmann (1970)
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