Celebrate “Kirktober”

Support The University Bookman 

Support this “Jewel of a Journal”

Since it was founded by Russell Kirk six decades ago, The University Bookman has continued to examine the most important books of our time. Here we offer clear and reflective book reviews in light of the “permanent things” that constitute the best of Western civilization. We do so for general readers across the United States and the world—those who, while not specialists, are interested in higher culture and the life of the mind and spirit.

But our work is only made possible by the generous donations of our friends and readers.

For the first and only time this year, we are asking for your support in order to raise $20,000 for operating costs. This amount will cover publishing expenses through the spring of 2025. 

What will these funds be used for?

  • To pay reviewers (average monthly expense is $1,200)
  • To cover website hosting costs, email service, webinar costs, and production software costs
  • For our communication staff’s work

The editors nobly volunteer their time for the good of the cause. And some reviewers forgo their honorarium to stretch the journal’s bandwidth. All contributions go towards the direct costs of running the journal.

As you may know, October has been nicknamed “Kirktober” by some Russell Kirk readers in honor of his birthday on October 19. And the Book Gallery hosts a lively discussion focused on Kirk’s supernatural fiction each October. We hope to be able to announce that the goal of $20,000 has been reached by All Soul’s Day. At that successful conclusion, we will release an audio recording of a Kirk short story as read by one of his former literary assistants.

Longtime reader Jack Fowler remarked:

“As our culture is buffeted by attacks from Marxists and ideologues and the foes of civil order, intent on the destruction of the American Project, conservatism has a pressing need for meaningful and reasoned examination of the principles that underwrite a free society. The University Bookman, an old and wise friend, a jewel, has never been more needed than now. A dedicated platform for the discussion of new books that deserve a hearing in the public square, University Bookman is a place of sanity and intelligence and honesty.”

By making a contribution, you join this important endeavor to renew our culture and redeem our time.

The University Bookman is the online journal of the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal, a 501(c)(3) non-profit public charity. All donations are tax-deductible.

To make a donation through direct deposit or a donor advised fund, contact info@kirkcenter.org.

If you would like to donate by check to support the University Bookman, please send it to:
The Russell Kirk Center
P.O. Box 4
Mecosta, Michigan 49332

 Read More Bookman Articles

The Wolfe Who Cried Kirk

In the pages of the once-respectable New Republic, Alan Wolfe has written a scurrilous attack on Russell Kirk in the guise of a review of the recently published collection entitled The Essential Russell Kirk. The review is noteworthy not for its ugliness or completely...

Home, Sour Home

Home, Sour Home

“Beckeld finds oikophobia not only in the present-day United States but also across the West and in ancient Greece and Rome, eighteenth-century France, and twentieth-century Great Britain. Oikophobia’s onset is significant because it has weakened the places in which it appeared.”

Lincoln and the Democratic Cause

Lincoln and the Democratic Cause

“Professor Guelzo is prescient… in offering Lincoln’s contemplations on the meaning and purpose of the Civil War, including the possibility that the war was a providential necessity preceding an outcome, emancipation, and largely because race and slavery are central to Lincoln’s history as a great evil, our country’s original sin, and anathema to our democracy. “