A series of small paperback books, each describing the life and work of a single Western (mostly)
philosopher. All the ones I have seen were written by
Paul Strathern. They are published by Ivan R. Dee, Publisher, 1332 North Halsted Street, Chicago, IL 60622, USA.
The titles published so far are:
Thomas Aquinas,
Aristotle,
St. Augustine,
Confucius,
Descartes,
Hegel,
Hume,
Kant,
Kierkegaard,
Locke,
Machiavelli,
Nietzsche,
Plato,
Sartre,
Schopenhauer,
Socrates,
Spinoza,
and Wittgenstein
(each title is the name of the philosopher followed by 'in 90 Minutes').
As of the 1999 publication date of Schopenhauer in 90 Minutes, these volumes are 'in preparation':
Bacon,
Berkeley,
Derrida,
Dewey,
Foucault,
Leibniz,
Marx,
J. S. Mill,
Bertrand Russell.
According to the back cover, Jim Holt of
The Wall Street Journal said the books in this series are
"Witty, illuminating, and blessedly concise".
I agree.