Learning Chinese
There are lots of travel books, and most of them have the same structure: Why I traveled to Upper Revolting; What happened to me in Upper Revolting;…
G.K. Chesterton: A Big Round Subject
G.K. Chesterton: A Biography. Ian Ker. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. It is certainly a great thick square book (on a great thick round subject). A…
Chesterton as Journalist
In the 12 October 1929 issue of the Illustrated London News, G.K. Chesterton wrote: ". . . How much more melancholy is the condition of those, in…
Winters Contra Everybody
Yvor Winters, American poet, critic, and grouch, is by no means forgotten. Amazon lists 196 hits, including two selections of letters, and his magnum opus, Forms of…
Actually, This is Kansas, Dorothy
On our desk lie a number of small and rather drab books. They are 3 ½ by 5 inches, a size that fits nicely into a shirt…
Another Young Man with a Horn
Every hour, day and night, year in and year out, from the higher of the two towers of the Basilica of St. Mary, a trumpet call sounds…
Guess Who Came to Dinner: Van Loon’s Lives
[The local children] . . . soon sensed that there was something mysterious about [their guests] . . . that they had gone through certain experiences which…
Around the Edge of the Plot: The Nero Wolfe Mysteries
There are many mysteries: most are read and shelved, but a few are reread, and sometimes reread again. Sherlock Holmes comes to mind, another series is that…
And Prayers Come Limping After: The Daughter of Time
On our desk lies an elderly paperback, somewhat yellowed and a genuine curiosity. In the upper right hand corner is a green seal with a penguin. In…
Lost in the Original: Reading Without Translations
When we enter middle age we shed the illusions of youth (such as the merit of keg parties). As we approach the far border of that period…
The Mystery of the High Sales of C.S. Lewis
Why is C.S. Lewis loved so hard by so many people? He was a man of wide reading (very wide reading), but as a scholar he was…
There was a Boy They Called Hillaire
The Scorpion is black as soot, He dearly loves to bite; He is a most unpleasant brute To find in bed, at night. As everyone knows, many…
The Problem of Belloc
I wonder why I don't read more Belloc? In the ordinary way of things, if one likes this (Agatha Christie, Shakespeare, or cheddar), it would seem reasonable…
Rudyard Kipling or G.K. Chesterton: But Not Both
When G.K. Chesterton died on Jun 14, 1936, about six months after Rudyard Kipling, both men were long out of fashion, By now, as they recede in…
Try to Remember, Artfully
A few weeks ago, we touched on The Art of Memory, by Frances Yates, well known scholar of the Renaissance. When that book came out in 1966,…