Writers & Poets 232

Fr. Michael Orsi reviews Kauffman's Luther Martin, and finds wisdom therein.

If your religion--or at least your concept of the moral norms of the civil order--lacks a notion of grace, it therefore also lacks a notion of gifts; all it can…

George A. Panichas, literary critic and longtime editor of Modern Age, has died at the age of 79.

David Brooks offers an unstinting positive assessment of Phillip Blond's alternative to the current Left/Right alignment.

Matthew J. Milliner explicates "Art and Beauty," while Dana Gioia wins Notre Dame's Laetare Medal

Phillip Blond to lecture in Washington D.C and Philadelphia - thanks to FPR

Is there a place for friendship in politics? According to ancient theory - one that continued well into modern times - not only should friendship be a main aim of…

Lovers of snow and cold are qualitatively different from the lovers of sun and surf; they are different moral beings altogether.

Men cut off from their origins and alienated from their selves become desperate, and desperate men do desperate deeds.

But as a profound poet trying to make a comfortable living I can’t really trouble myself about that fit audience though few. . . . Were I to start thinking…

He is resigned to the inertia of the old Spanish cult, and willing to just let it fade away. The voluptuousness of European culture had no way to gain traction…

Devon, PA. My old friend and classmate, Jeremiah Chamberlin, writes in to the FPR ombudsman of a new venture he has undertaken to help support, save, or at least treasure,…

Claremont, CA. They call it the “Superman Syndrome.” People who use methamphetamine often believe that they are capable of doing impossible things. Like flying. Or walking through walls. Or earning…

Alexandria, VA My last post has led some to conclude that I am a pessimist. Even Ross Douthat, among the most perceptive commentators in print and on internet, suggested that…

Kearneysville, WV. One thing I enjoy about the Christmas break is the chance to sit back and read a novel. For some months I have been intending to read Home…

Wichita, KS I write a Christmas post every year. I'm actually quite fond of this year's entry, with its reflections on ghosts and spirits and other things in the wintertime…

East Lansing, MI.  Back home in the steady snows of Michigan, I came across an old poem of mine, the other day, that seems like an appropriate riposte to Jeffrey…

"I love Old October so, I can't bear to see her go---" ---James Whitcomb Riley Via The American Conservative: http://www.amconmag.com/article/2009/dec/01/00050/ Subscribe, won't you? And your favorites.....?

"I think a writer who leaves his roots leaves any hope of writing importantly"---John Gardner Those so favored by the Good Lord as to be within listening distance of Batavia,…

BURNED-OVER DISTRICT, NY. I have never really given a damn about my own mongrel ethnicity—I care about place, not race—and besides, there are many mysteries to which I don’t particularly…

Hillsdale, MI. I propose the creation of TBTAS, “The Booth Tarkington Appreciation Society.”  If we take the liberties some have with the Tetragrammaton (Y*H*W*H) and pronounce it “yahway,” we could…

Holland, MI. I confess: I hate farms. I hate everything about them. I hate the malodorous smells that take days to wash off. I hate the all-pervasive dirt which invades…

Devon, PA.  Last month, I alerted FPR readers to the appearance of the first part of my essay, "Art and Beauty against the Politicized Aesthetic," in First Principles.  The primary…

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Wichita, KS. No one, I think, has ever summed up the longing for a life with front porches--the localist longing which is this blog's raison…