The Third Tolkien on View

The Third Tolkien on View

by | Jun 9, 2019

By Michael Toscano When Mabel Tolkien died on November 14, 1904, in a diabetic coma, her two sons, Ronald and Hilary, twelve and ten years of age, were passed to the legal guardianship of Fr. Francis Xavier Morgan, a priest of the Birmingham Oratory, founded less than...
From New York to Chartres with La Farge

From New York to Chartres with La Farge

by | Jun 2, 2019

By Stephen Schmalhofer Sixteen days before Willa Cather died she wrote to Sigrid Undset lamenting “the strange deterioration in human beings” evident in the desire of seemingly every American “to want to live in New York City, drink cocktails, and wear outrageous...
An Artist in History

An Artist in History

by | Dec 30, 2018

A Revolution in Color: The World of John Singleton Copley. by Jane Kamensky. W.W. Norton and Company, 2017. Hardcover, 544 pages, $19.95. Reviewed by James Baresel Much as honesty forces the admission that they are not of equal aesthetic quality, the works of John...
A Rewarding Experience Awaits

A Rewarding Experience Awaits

by | Sep 9, 2018

Rendez-vous with Art by Philippe de Montebello and Martin Gayford. Thames & Hudson, 2014. Hardcover, 248 pages, $35. Reviewed by Stephen Schmalhofer  While his cause lingers, if Dante were to be canonized, museum patrons will have a patron saint. As tourists...

A Little More Crafty

by | Mar 4, 2018

Cræft: An Inquiry into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts by Alexander Langlands. W.W. Norton & Company, 2018. Hardcover, 352 pages, $27. GRACY OLMSTEAD What does it mean to be a craftsman? To us, the word is often caught up in artistry: the...