Essay by Richard Rankin Among Robert Ruark’s (1915-1965) complete body of work as a prolific, high-profile newspaper and magazine journalist and bestselling novelist, perhaps his most enduring literary accomplishments are his two sporting classics, The Old Man and the Boy (1957) and The Old Man’s Boy Grows Older (1961). Created from a series of highly […]
“Quail Hunting at Little Hobcaw as Inspiration for Robert Ruark’s ‘The Old Man and the Boy,'” by Richard Rankin
February 7, 2018 by 1 Comment
“Performing Atonement: Regret, Responsibility, and Redemption in Gail Godwin’s ‘Flora,'” by Kerstin W. Shands
November 16, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Essay by Kerstin W. Shands There is no person so severely punished, as those who subject themselves to the whip of their own remorse. (Seneca) There are things we can’t undo, but perhaps there is a kind of constructive remorse that could transform regrettable acts into something of service to life. (Godwin 1) Wistfully […]
“Following Truman Capote on the Island of Ischia, Italy,” by Susan Van Allen
August 8, 2017 by 1 Comment
Essay by Susan Van Allen I’m standing on a balcony overlooking the port of Forio, on the island of Ischia, floating in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Naples. Sounds fancy, but it’s far from it. The port is fronted by a parking lot of taxis and Vespas, smooching teenagers, signoras strolling by with bags of […]
The Tate of Our Souls: The Lost Cause of the Southern Agrarians
July 27, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Essay by James McWilliams Few readers, even the well-read, know much about Allen Tate. Those who do know the arcane American poet—usually professors who teach “southern literature”—would likely not label him a humanitarian. Cerebral, distant, combative, self-obsessed—yes—but not a social reformer in any sense of the term. And yet (a million caveats notwithstanding) there […]
“From Self-Reliance to Loss of Sovereign Self: The Ghost of Emerson in Walker Percy’s Fictional Poetics”
August 25, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Essay by Louis Gallo We rarely associate the names of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walker Percy, yet both deal with common philosophic and social concerns which make it clear that Percy, like so many writers following Emerson, can be examined from the perspective of Transcendentalism in general and self-reliance in particular. However remote Percy’s sensibility may […]
“Dancing with Langston Hughes,” Essay by M.W. Rishell
June 21, 2016 by 1 Comment
We should always be wary of posthumous publications, as it is likely the author held the work back for one reason or another. Seldom are things simply lost to time. But the hunger for more work from our departed authors of legend always overrules these reservations. The New Yorker has circulated, online on May 30 […]