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Although I’ve been cutting back on subscriptions to second-rate (and worse) magazines lately, I’ve been sinking a couple of hundreds bucks into back issues of two worthwhile periodicals — Liberty and Chronicles. Both mags have fire-sales of low-priced archival copies underway. Loads of Bill Kauffman, Murray Rothbard, and other greats in the issues from the [...]
I haven’t read enough of the New Critics to have a well-formed opinion on them. I’m skeptical of the rote denunciation of more recent trends in literary studies in this Wall Street Journal piece, however — not because the new trends aren’t awful, but because such “conservative” moaning about liberal or radical or leftist [...]
Filed under: Culture
I had no idea that the great economic journalist Henry Hazlitt was indeed related to the great essayist William Hazlitt. Turns out, according to this archival Time article about H. Hazlitt succeeding H.L. Mencken as editor of the American Mercury, William was Henry’s great-great-great uncle. I’m grateful to Scott Lahti for bringing this to my [...]
Thought I would call attention to Brian Doherty’s Reason essay on Heinlein, which is now on-line, and to R. J. Stove’s review of The Essential Russell Kirk, which comes to Kirk with fresh eyes..
Filed under: Books, Conservatism, Culture, magazines
Last Thursday I attended the Culture of Enterprise event at the Cato Institute, “What Should Be a Culture of Enterprise in an Age of Globalization.” Thomas Woods gave a talk that was an absolute tour de force and, fortunately, it’s available on-line. Hear it here (MP3), or watch it here (Real video). Those [...]
Filed under: Culture, Liberty, Social criticism, economics
Stephen Greenblatt on “Shakespeare and the Uses of Power,” from the New York Review of Books. The best thing in the April 12 issue, though, is Hayden Pelliccia’s “Let Virgil Be Virgil,” which reviews the new Aeneid translations by Robert Fagles and Stanley Lombardo. (Maybe I should be more circumspect about claiming that the Pelliccia [...]
Scott Lahti brings to my attention this article about Mencken’s house on Hollins Street in Baltimore. The city has neither the means nor much will to take care of the place (which was a museum at one point). Luckily, the Maryland Historical Society and the Friends of the H.L. Mencken House might soon have a [...]
Filed under: Culture
I don’t have strong feelings about A.N. Wilson either way, but bravo for Bevis Hillier if he really was the one who tricked Wilson into including a fake letter (complete with coded insult) in his John Betjemen biography. Auberon Waugh — who once sabotaged the Spectator’s list of contributors to credit George Gale as “Lunchtime [...]
Filed under: Books, Culture, Uncategorized
From Kelly Jane Torrance’s fascinating interview with Mark Helprin (be sure to read the whole thing here):
MH: …I gave a speech that lasted 45 minutes or an hour, followed by a long question period. And one of the questions was about the democracy initiative, about changing Iraq into a democracy, and I am on record [...]
Probably not. A few days back, Tim asked if I would solicit Paul Cantor’s opinion on Clare Asquith’s arguments for a crypto-Catholic Shakespeare. Professor Cantor said he hadn’t read her book but has been skeptical (to say the least) of the claim whenever it’s been made by others. He referred me to [...]