Saturday, November 15, 2025

'So Much for the Philosophy of Old Age'

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On New Year’s Eve many years ago in Albany, N.Y., a friend and I attended a concert by a traditional Irish band in a church basement. It was...
Friday, November 14, 2025

'And Probably Permanently'

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Even good writers require resuscitation. We can’t count on critics or publishers to keep them and their work alive. That’s the reader’s job....
Thursday, November 13, 2025

'Professional Seers-Off'

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“I am not good at it. To do it well seems to me one of the most difficult things in the world, and probably seems so to you, too.”   It do...
Wednesday, November 12, 2025

'The Great Writers Are My Teachers'

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An old friend asks if I remember reading Homer Price (1943) by Robert McCloskey. The library in Pearl Road Elementary School was a cramped ...
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Tuesday, November 11, 2025

'This Is Not What We Were Formerly Told'

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“I have been young, and now am not too old”   Edmund Blunden was nineteen years old when he joined the Royal Sussex Regiment in the spring...
Monday, November 10, 2025

'Fugitives From the Law of Averages'

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Eugene Sledge was born in Mobile, Alabama, in 1923 and enlisted in the Marine Corps in December 1942. He served in the Pacific Theater as a ...
4 comments:
Sunday, November 09, 2025

'I Cannot Distil a Review From This New Book Yet'

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Think of the many writers to whom Desmond MacCarthy’s experience would seem to fit, and not fit:   “It is curious: while I am reading Mr. ...
4 comments: