The University Bookman
Reviewing Books that Build Culture
Join friends of the Bookman in New York City on December 8, 2025 for the Gerald Russello Memorial Lecture.
Historical Marker Project
Thank you! In preparation for the upcoming centennial of the birth of Russell Kirk, friends have successfully funded a historical marker for his birthplace of Plymouth, Michigan. We are grateful to all who participated. Here is a video of Annette Kirk and Andrea Kirk...
Burning River: Glimpses from the Banks of the Cuyahoga
Rust Belt Chic: The Cleveland Anthology, 2nd Edition, edited by Richie Piiparinen and Anne Trubek. Belt Publishing, 2014. Paper, 272 pages, $20. The Akron Anthology, edited by Jason Segedy. Belt Publishing, 2016. Paper, 211 pages, $20. When I first emigrated from...
Treasures in the Garden
The Walled Garden: Poems by Andrew Thornton-Norris. CreateSpace, 2011, 2015. Paper, 74 pages, $7. Few things have frustrated supporters of traditionalist or conservative aesthetics than the state of contemporary poetry. It seems that not a year goes by with at least...
Books in Little: Philosophy for Life
On Life and Death by Cicero. Translated by John Davie. Oxford University Press, 2017. Paper, 261 pages, $17.The fresh hardcovers of such works as On Old Age on bookstore shelves indicate that Cicero is in vogue nowadays. Perhaps a statesman and philosopher who...
Recovering Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau: A Life by Laura Dassow Walls. University of Chicago Press, 2017. Hardcover, 640 pages, $35. Reviewed by John Byron Kuhner Of all the great American writers, I think I pity Henry David Thoreau the most. Long paired by curriculum writers...
A Great Story, Almost
Beren and Lúthien by J. R. R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017. Hardcover, 288 pages, $30. Reviewed by Ben Reinhard Beren and Lúthien stands out among the posthumous Tolkien publications of the last decade or so. Unlike The...
The Book Doesn’t Change, But the Reader Does
A conversation with Daniel MoranDaniel Moran is the author of Creating Flannery O’Connor: Her Critics, Her Publishers, Her Readers. He teaches history at Monmouth University and writing at Rutgers University. Creating Flannery O’Connor was published in 2016 by the...
Books in Little: A Literate Lawyer
Of Bees and Boys: Lines from a Southern Lawyer by Allen Mendenhall. Red Dirt Press, 2017. Paperback, 76 pages, $12.95.“Are Lawyers Illiterate?” asks Allen Mendenhall in the title of one of the essays making up this collection of material previously published in...
A Righteous Republic?
A conversation with Philip GorskiWe are very pleased to welcome Philip Gorski to discuss his new book American Covenant: A History of Civil Religion from the Puritans to the Present (Princeton UP, 2017). Gorski is Professor of Sociology and Religious Studies at Yale...
The Book Gallery
A collection of conversations with Bookman editor Luke C. Sheahan and writers and authors of imagination and erudition.
