It’s a name that many, if not most, people are unfamiliar with—unless they remember the name of the author who wrote the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” I was unfamiliar with Sarah Josepha Hale until reading this book, but upon completing it, I feel a sense of regret knowing that she has been…
Book Review: ‘Lady Editor: Sarah Josepha Hale and the Making of the Modern American Woman’
Short and Sharp: The Power and Pleasure of Haiku
The piercing chill I feel: my dead wife’s comb, in our bedroom, under my heel… Anyone who has lost a loved one, particularly a parent, spouse, or a child with whom they lived, will immediately connect with the poem of Yosa Buson (whose original family name was Taniguchi) “The Piercing Chill I Feel.” In the days and…
Truth Tellers: Henry David Thoreau and the ‘Essential Truth’
Great poets and seers do not write for classrooms or scholars; they write for other people, other souls. I call to witness Leo Tolstoy, who dropped out of school; Virginia Woolf, who was not allowed to go to school; and Charles Dickens, who was expelled from school. Although Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) did indeed graduate…
100 Days of Dante: What’s the Big Deal?
Gratifyingly, as we have now passed (Sept. 13 and 14) the anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri 700 years ago (1321), there has been a massive upsurge in interest and promotion of his work, especially of “The Divine Comedy,” arguably the world’s greatest poem. This is really good news. In the UK, for example,…
‘The Poet of Childhood’: Remembering Eugene Field
Most journalism is ephemeral. The news reports, opinion columns, and commentaries on sports, fashion, health, and dining are brushed aside by tomorrow’s headlines and shifting interests. Here today and gone tomorrow are the usual watchwords in the Fourth Estate. We readers may have our favorite writers—I, for example, particularly relish the editorials by Conrad Black,…
Dig Up ‘King Solomon’s Mines’
When was the last time you read a book that got you started with a tattered map scratched out in blood? And imagine if that map led you on a perilous journey where scraps of an ominous legend brought you to a stony vault, which in turn descended to a lost treasure chamber, where presiding…
Book Review: ‘Debunking the 1619 Project’ by Mary Grabar
The 1619 Project’s massive success and wholesale acceptance by millions of readers, as well as its propagation into thousands of public schools, proves that many Americans are fond of ideologically-driven historical narratives as long as they are well-written. It is incredible that a slew of essays by writers whose specializations are not tailored to the…
Book Review: ‘Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell’: An Advocate for Thinking Based on Facts
A new biography by Jason L. Riley called “Maverick: A biography of Thomas Sowell” focuses on the critical thinker Thomas Sowell, who seems to think with every fiber of his being. As of this writing, Thomas Sowell is 91 and going strong. According to Prager University, he is “an economist, a historian, a philosopher, and…
Lest We Forget: Some Lessons From Rudyard Kipling
“When I was a boy of fourteen,” Mark Twain once noted, “my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.” Like Twain, some children roll their eyes when…
Shakespeare’s Timeless Teachings
“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts.” —William Shakespeare While I’m far from qualified to teach a course on the subject of Shakespeare, there’s profound wisdom to be found in his works. And…
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