Winner of the Pulitzer prize in 1974 and the culmination of a lifes work,the Denial of Death is Ernest Beckers brilliant and impassioned answer to the why of human existence. In bold contrast to the predominant Freudian school of thought, Becker tackles the problem of the vital lie -- mans refusal to acknowledge his own mortality. In doing so, he sheds new light on the nature of humanity and issues a call to life and its living that still resonates more than twenty years after its writing.