Reuben Abel was born in New York. He had a distinguished career as lecturer, professor, and associate dean at the New School for Social Research in New York. He held membership in several philosophic organizations. Abel also held such varied jobs as department store buyer and president and treasurer of a bedspread company. Abel's interest in the work of F. C. S. Schiller resulted in his books The Pragmatic Humanism of F.C.S. Schiller (1955), and Humanistic Pragmatism (1966). Another book, Man Is the Measure: A Cordial Invitation to the Central Problems of Philosophy (1976), was an effort to bring an understanding of philosophy to ordinary people. He was also a contributor to The… Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Saturday Review, and various other philosophic books and journals. Abel died August 8, 1997, in New Rochelle, New York.