Finding comfort in this poem …

… The Lake Isle of Innisfree by W. B. Yeats

Remembering …

… Reviving the Vanished Voice of a Maker (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

In case you forgot

… QUOTES ARE FACTS. (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

The poetry effect

… I Can’t Look Away From This Poem About Looking (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Writers of Faith …

… 25 Great Novelists Who Affirm Faith (Hat tip, Tim Davis)

Coming to a theater near you …

… Banijay U.K. Signs Development Deal With Ellie Wood’s Clearwood Films, Sets Adaptation of Barbara Pym Novel ‘Excellent Women’ as First Project (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

Maturing …

...Report From The Other Side

Lovely singer, lovely song …

… Sarah McLachlan Adia

Nice to know …

… Michael Updike: Gravestones Don’t Have to be Morbid (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

The private Updike …

… Rabbit’s Runners (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Morning reading at THPR …

… Traveling in style with Emily Dickinson

Good news …

… The Latin Mass Lives On (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Just so you know …

… Extreme Heat Will Change You

A poem for this morning …

…… Brooks Haxton — An Interval of Five Tones, Being the Domina

Reading at THPR …

… “Beach” by Stanley Plumly

A poem for this morning …

… C. S. Giscombe — Second Dream

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

The Great English Joke …

… Daisy Waugh, granddaughter of Evelyn Waugh and daughter of Auberon, has a new book out ( Hat tip, Dave Lull)

The private Updike …

… Selected Letters of John Updike (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

A poem for this morning …

… Olivia Sokolowski — Lover of Cars

Hide and Seek …

… I remained hidden as a matter of honor

Sounds like a good plan …

… POTUS puts U.S. Army in control of America’s railroads

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

Just so you knw …

… Oops! 6 English Words Created Through a Mistake

A poem for this morning …

… John Skoyles — The Second Olga

All aboard …

… Making transoceanic journeys so much easier in 1914

Tracking the decline …

… The replacement of disinterested judgment by the rule of the uninterested ( Hat tip, Dave lull)

The poetry of words …

… ROGER’S THESAURUS (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

So true …

… The Devil’s in the Details of Modernity (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Q&A …

… My Interview With Judge Patrick F. Dugan, Candidate For Philadelphia District Attorney

A poem for this morning …

… Lorenzo Thomas — Displacement

Bravo …

… Tulsi Stares Down UK, Scoring Another Big Win for American Consumers

Something to think on …

… Motivation

Slippery slope on this day in 1954 …

… The beginning of a festering problem for the U.S.

A poem for this morning

… Hilda Hilst — From “Alcohologues”

Hope in 1946 …

… Someone is having his 79th

Literary obesity …

… There Are Too Many Overweight Biographies Whatever happened to Plutarch’s blessed brevity? by Joseph Epstein (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

The adventure of reading …

… How I read poems, with aphantasia ( Hat tip, Dave Lull)

And the nominees are …

… The Petrona Award 2025 - Longlist (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

A poem

… The View from an Airplane at Night, over California - Bruce Bawer (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Something to think on …

… inspiring Quotes

Poem for Sunday: Dislocation …

… Someone is walking on your grave

Hot off the presses …

… Sports Illustrated without those swimsuit models

A poem for this morning …

… Louis Simpson — Sway

A man for our times …

… C.S. Lewis in the Age of Bleakness

Something I’ve said every month for seventeen years …

… Thank you, Mr. President!

A poem for this morning …

… Leslie Richardson — Leftovers

A poem for this morning …

… Elizabeth Spires — Second Story

Intimate correspondence …

… I felt like a voyeur reading this great Scottish writer's love letters ( Hatip, Dave Luul)

Uncle Sam wanted her …

… Opha May Johnson becomes the first in 1918

Second in command …

… Vance on Knife’s Edge (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Something to think on

… Happiness

Hide and seek …

… Sue Hendrickson makes big discovery in South Dakota

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

Nice place for a stroll …

… A Review of Four Walks in Central Park by Aaron Poochigian ( Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Just so you know …

… Eddington Is the Must-See Covid Masterpiece (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Breaking news …

… “We begin bombing in five minutes”

Something to think on …

Who would ever think that so much went on in the soul of a young girl? — Anne Frank

A nice mix …

… Poetry Against All Odds: Banned Books, Ernesto Cardenal, and Poetry in Spanish

Father and son …

… The Kindest Cut 2: The Shavening

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

Q&A

… A chat with John Berryman

Time for a smile …

… A Litle Humor: Needs Editing

Wagner’s renegade urge …

… ‘Wagner and the Creation of the Ring’ Review: Back to Valhalla (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

There’s a sucker born every minute …

… P. T. Barnum’s connection with George Washington

Sad anniversary …

… In ‘Hiroshima Mon Amour,’ memory is a wound that will not heal. i spent an afternoon talking with Father Arupe in that cafeteria of what was then St. Joseph's College. The Jesuits had the only cinder-block building in the region and it survived the blast. They did all that they to treat the wounded.

Still waters …

… Recollections of time spent at a now famous pond

Finding faith …

… Review: The Mary Pages by Sally Read ( Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

A Silver Crown …

… The cold and forbidding worlds of Cynthia Ozick. (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Roots …

… ‘It never leaves me’: Wisconsin author’s hometown is his longstanding muse (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

A fresh look at a classic case …

… ‘An Officer and a Spy’ Review: Roman Polanski’s New Spin on the Dreyfus Affair (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

A poem for this morning …

… Claribel Alegría — Documentary

Apprection …

… Bryan Appleyard: Jerry Garcia’s American journey (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Up, up, and away!…

… It is the Wright Brothers’ first public flight

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

It happened in my neck of the woods …

… Suppressing rebellious whiskey makers in Pennsylvania

Master of her craft …

… Esther Bubley - A Life in Photography ( Hat tip, Dave Lull)

A poem for this morning …

… Susan Fox — Sceaux the Day They Turn Off the Fountain

Angus Wilson

 

I can't remember where I first encountered that name -- Angus Wilson -- but I'm glad, having now finished one of his early collection of stories, that I did. Published in 1949, The Wrong Set and Other Stories is an exceptional collection: indeed, some of the stories here are among the finest I've read. Which is saying something -- as I often lose my way with short stories. But these are entirely different: whereas short stories often serve as vignettes, Wilson's work functions -- in my reading -- as an attempt at crescendo. Each story in The Wrong Set culminates in a localized crisis, a moment of understanding, or reckoning, or revelation. And then, in most cases, Wilson leaves it there: the crisis speaks for itself; there is nothing more to say because its arrival is so clear, its meaning and implication so obvious. Wilson wrote after Fitzgerald, of course, but there was something reminiscent of the American master here: like Fitzgerald, Wilson wrote well, for instance, of drinking and of social custom. And more: there's an element in Wilson's stories -- as in Fitzgerald's -- of powerful personalities, of local figures made grand: only then, in a moment of weakness or exposure, to be cut down to nothing. The Wrong Set is very much a product of its time: the inter-war period, leading to the Second World War. And in this way, it's more than literature: it's a historical work as well, highlighting facets of British society at this time, and the way they mixed to generate equal measures of beauty and catastrophe. 

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

One of a kind …

… In Search of Samuel Clemens (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Today’s Poem …

… Light Shining Out of Darkness (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Publishing history …

… The Saturday Evening Post begins its long history

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

A poem for this morning …

… Jacqueline Osherow —= Mural from the Temple of Longing Thither

Christmas in August …

… Santa Claus goes to a town in Indiana on this day in 1946

Farewell …

… The Empire of Forgetting by John Burnside review – last words from an essential poet of our age (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Birthday of a Native Son …

… Born in poverty-stricken Harlem NY in 1924

Hmm …

… In defense of young men (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Cause for celebration …

… John Henry Newman: Newest Doctor of the Church (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

A poem for this morning …

… Paulé Bártón — The Sleep Bus

Let us raise a toast …

… Opening time for Tolkien and CS Lewis - Harry Mount on the reopening of the Inklings' Oxford pubs (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

The Beethoven many do not notice …

… BEETHOVEN’S CATHOLIC HUMANISM

A poem for this morning …

… Cathy Park Hong — Ballad of Fort Mann

Noteworthy date …

… Birthday of famous American writer