Herrick and Donne and the Problems of Modernist Poetics

by | Nov 13, 2011

Occasionally, we are brought up short in our reading by a claim that is made with great confidence—even audacity—by its author, upon a point that seems to us rather dubious. Thus, F. R. Leavis, in his book New Bearings in English Poetry (1932), states: “My suggestion...

A Literary Patrimony

by | Nov 13, 2011

“Bread” came alive one afternoon in our nursery. Having just read Maurice Maeterlinck’s The Blue Bird together, my father, my sisters, and I created a dramatization of it in which the character “Bread” assumed a life of his own. In this play, two children wander...

Fortunate Friendships

by | Nov 9, 2011

Below is an excerpt from Tim Goeglein’s new memoir, The Man in the Middle, featuring his recollections of friendship with Russell Kirk. Dr. A. W. R. Hawkins offers a brief introduction. When I read Timothy Goeglein’s The Man in the Middle: An Inside Account of Faith...

Santayana’s Standing

by | Nov 6, 2011

A response to David Dilworth.David Dilworth’s review in the Spring 2011 University Bookman of George Santayana’s The Genteel Tradition in American Philosophy and Character and Opinion in the United States (Yale UP, 2009) raises important questions about the permanent...

The Youthful Writings of Russell Kirk

by | Nov 6, 2011

The scribblings of Russell Kirk, as teenager and pre-teen, reveal a widely read, precocious and imaginative young man. Among the remnants of youth which are preserved one may find vastly detailed drawings of Stevenson’s Treasure Island, and all sorts of adventure...