Introduction
This page is a simple public portal for accessing the partially annotated bibliography of works related to Michael Polanyi. This project began as A Classified and Partially Annotated Bibliography of Michael Polanyi by Professor Maben Walter Poirier (Concordia University, Montreal, Canada). That massive publication (now out of print) listed and classified works by or related to Michael Polanyi up to 2001, and was originally compiled by Poirier by hand over several years, using a simple MS-DOS database program. Poirier’s bibliography drew upon some existing Polanyi bibliographies as well as early academic Internet search-engines and databases, as well as the international postal system as Maben hunted down early copies of journals not at his disposal.
Starting in approximately 2013, Poirier discussed the idea of updating the MP bibliography with several of his former students, including the future Dr. Colin Cordner (Carleton University and University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada). In 2016, Poirier, being involved by other projects, invited Cordner to take over the update. For the next several years, Cordner led the effort to update the bibliography, adding many hundreds of new entries, including primary and secondary materials that had not been available for the first edition. This effort brought the bibliography up to 2023. The effort to recuperate the first edition from aging, and nearly unreadable, electronic files, and to add new items was greatly assisted by several individuals: Adrian Merfu (M.A., Carleton University), Faisal Sadaatmand (M.A. U. of Toronto), and Tunde Nemeth.
The bibliography as it currently stands is a simplified SQL database generated using the free academic tool Zotero. An online, server-side Zotero account is then utilized to synchronize the database across devices and platforms. That same account is then dynamically accessed via the web-pages below. Thus, the bibliography as it is displayed on those pages at any point in time represent the most up-to-date iteration of the database, which we hope to see updated communally on a more routine (and less heroic) basis.
At present, the bibliography comprises more than 2700 items, including books, essays, audio recordings, and pamphlets. It does not yet include entries for the complete contents of the Michael Polanyi archives, nor related archives, though many items recovered or published in such archives have made it into the database.
Colin Cordner
August 13th, 2026
Bibliography, Web-Page Formats
- Michael Polanyi Bibliography – Searchable
- Michael Polanyi Bibliography – Full, Sorted by Author
- Michael Polanyi Bibliography – Full, Sorted by Title
- Michael Polanyi Bibliography – Full, Sorted by Date (ascending)
- Michael Polanyi Bibliography – Full, Sorted by Date (descending)
Bibliography, Full Database Interface
(Note: The following link will take you to the Zotero website, which will allow you to view and search the bibliography using their database viewer.)