Terrapin: Poems by Wendell Berry Tom Pohrt illustrates a collection of Wendell Berry poems in a lovely volume, perfect as a gift for young and old alike. Toys From Kaz Woodcraft Real toys made of real wood for real imaginations. Hank Williams, 40 Greatest Hits You cannot know country music without knowing Hank Williams. You [...]
We all know the traditional English rhyme of wedding day advice for women (and also useful for triggering the return of Time Lords wiped from history): Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. Each item is intended as a token of good luck for the bride. But there is wisdom contained within those [...]
Wendell Berry addressed faith, agrarianism, and why he hates “environmentalism” in a ninety minute conversation with Centre College Professor Eric Mount. The two men sat in angled wingback chairs before a crowd of more than two hundred listeners in the sumptuous surroundings of Louisville’s Crescent Hill Baptist Church. In true professorial fashion, Mount made [...]
A Tory, according to Samuel Johnson, is a man attached to orthodoxy in church and state. A bohemian is a wandering and often impecunious man of letters or arts, indifferent to the demands of bourgeois fad and foible… Tory and bohemian go not ill together: it is quite possible to abide by the norms [...]
William Gilmore Simms When it comes to stories that make your hair stand on end everyone’s mind understandably goes to master of macabre Edgar Allan Poe. But what did Poe himself consider the best ghost story? Of William Gilmore Simms’s short story “Grayling, or Murder Will Out,” Poe wrote “it is really [...]
Business Insider caused a sensation with their list “The Most Famous Book Set In Every State.” And when we say “sensation,” we mean “shock and anger.” While some of their picks are obvious, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz for Kansas or To Kill a Mockingbird for Alabama, others provoked more consternation. Does Louisiana deserve [...]
Years ago, perhaps when I was still in graduate school, I stopped at a Chattanooga used bookshop when passing through. One has a mental list of authors to check, and I happened to find an uncommon thing: a hardcover first edition of Wendell Berry’s 1970 book on race and the South, The Hidden Wound. The [...]
Wearing a bow tie is a way of broadcasting an aggressive lack of concern for what other people think.– Warren St. John, The New York Times Bow ties tend to provoke strong reactions. For some they conjure images of Winston S. Churchill standing firm against German bombings or of a young Frank Sinatra crooning. [...]
Alan Cornett at Dr. Kirk’s desk I am sure there was concern when they saw the canoe paddle float by, maybe even a bit of panic. Something had happened, possibly something bad. They were right. I was holding on to the most important American conservative writer of the twentieth century to keep [...]
“Women thrive on novelty and are easy meat for the commerce of fashion. Men prefer old pipes and torn jackets.” –Anthony Burgess During my time at Piety Hill I don’t know that I ever saw Russell Kirk without a coat and tie other than perhaps once or twice by happenstance in his home. Whether [...]
A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. –Proverbs 18:24 It is being reported that select schools in the UK are now forbidding students to have best friends in favor of group play. The primary reason cited for the policy is the potential [...]