Placing Chaucer

Placing Chaucer

by | Jun 30, 2019

Chaucer: A European Life by Marion Turner. Princeton University Press, 2019. Hardcover, 624 pages, $40. Reviewed by Carl Rollyson We know so little about Shakespeare’s life. The facts could be put onto no more than a page. That has not prevented biographers from...
Members of the Club

Members of the Club

by | Jun 9, 2019

The Club: Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age By Leo Damrosch. Yale University Press, 2019. Hardcover, 473 pages, $30. Reviewed by John C. Chalberg Better than a century ago G. K. Chesterton found much that was wrong with his world. In his...
Ideology Unbounded in San Francisco

Ideology Unbounded in San Francisco

by | May 19, 2019

Cult City: Jim Jones, Harvey Milk, and Ten Days That Shook San Francisco by Daniel J. Flynn. Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2018. Hardcover, 288 pages, $28. Reviewed by Matthew Stokes Conservatives of all stripes learn at a very young age that there are certain...
Reagan’s Consistent Cheerful Convictions

Reagan’s Consistent Cheerful Convictions

by | May 5, 2019

The Literary Reagan: Authentic Quotations from His Life By Nicholas Dujmovic. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019. Hardcover, 346 pages, $88. Reviewed by William F. Meehan III Nicholas Dujmovic’s rationale for compiling and editing The Literary Reagan is clear: the...
Writer as Goad

Writer as Goad

by | Apr 28, 2019

Ben Hecht: Fighting Words, Moving Pictures by Adina Hoffman. Yale University Press, 2019 Hardcover, 264 pages, $26. Reviewed by Carl Rollyson Ben Hecht is one of those American writers who seems to have had a hand in everything. He was a Chicago newspaperman who also...