The University Bookman
Reviewing Books that Build Culture
Announcing Kirk on Campus
We are pleased to announce a web presence for Kirk on Campus, our new project that celebrates and defends the permanent things at America’s colleges and universities. As a unique source of cultural conservative thought, Kirk on Campus fills a critical niche in the...
Edwards on Kirk
Lee Edwards has written an essay on Kirk in the Fall 2017 edition of Modern Age—“The Mind Behind ‘The Conservative Mind’,” outlining the unique traits of character, background, and mind that enabled Kirk to write his catalytic book, The Conservative Mind.
Discipline and Desire
Some Permanent Things by James Matthew Wilson. Wiseblood Books, 2014. Paperback, 156 pages, $16.50. James Matthew Wilson’s first full-length poetry collection explores how we might rediscover “permanent things” in a time of distraction, disruption, and disposability....
Shining a Light on Dark Deeds
The Moral Imagination in the Mystery Novels of Sally Wright by Ashlee Cowles When it comes to fictional works of the moral imagination, fantasy novels tend to receive the most attention from critics who believe literature plays a vital role in the conservation of the...
’Tis the season!
No, not that season. All Hallows’ Eve approaches—a perfect time to read or re-read one of Russell Kirk’s Ghostly Tales. We recently posted The Surly Sullen Bell (along with Ex Tenebris) here, and there are more stories, links, and commentary linked at Ghostly...
Virgil, Guide to the Perplexed
The Aeneid by Virgil, translated by David Ferry. University of Chicago Press, 2017. Hardcover, 437 pages, $35.C. S. Lewis once said of Virgil’s Aeneid that “No man who has once read it with full perception remains an adolescent.” That was certainly true of my first...
Lectures on What Can’t Be Taught
Literature Class by Julio Cortázar. New Directions, 2017. Paperback, 280 pages, $19. The question of whether or not creative writing is something that can be taught isn’t a perennial one, at least not explicitly or directly. The American MFA program, with its tens of...
Mark Twain, Huckster
How Not to Get Rich: The Financial Misadventures of Mark Twain by Alan Pell Crawford. Houghton Mifflin, 2017. Hardcover, 240 pages, $27.How Not to Get Rich: I could write a book on that subject! Happily, Alan Pell Crawford, author mostly recently of the thoughtful and...
Organizing Victory
Stanton: Lincoln’s War Secretary by Walter Stahr. Simon & Schuster, 2017. Hardcover, 768 pages, $35. Reviewed by Kyle Sammin The Civil War is often remembered from the point of view of the soldiers. Their stories of strategic genius and individual heroism on both...
The Book Gallery
A collection of conversations with Bookman editor Luke C. Sheahan and writers and authors of imagination and erudition.