For more than forty years and in more than thirty books, and in countless articles, Kirk fought on the front line in the war of ideas. The man of letters, he states, is a “heroic seeker” who proclaims that “life must be pitched on a higher plane.” Above all, he struggles against the ravages of “spiritual paralysis” in a world in which “the battle of Belief against Unbelief is the never-ending battle.” These pregnant words of his famous Scots forefather help us to gauge Kirk’s calling as a modern man of letters who discharges his function as “a guardian of old truths and old rights,” and who strains to push things up to their first principles. He exemplifies “the supreme importance of the Man of Letters in modern Society,” about which the nineteenth-century Scots social prophet and historian, Thomas Carlyle, has valuable things to say.
To the office of the man of letters Kirk brought considerable distinction, and for which he will be principally remembered and honored. I The Essential Russell Kirk has as its chief purpose the task of offering to a new generation of readers representative writings of a distinguished American man of letters of the twentieth century.The crises of modern civilization that Kirk confronted head-on in his lifetime have not abated and now continue into the twenty-first century in forms and with a force and thrust perhaps different from but surely no less threatening than in the preceding century. 543 Max Picard: A Man of Vision in Our Time. 514 Paul Elmer More on Justice and Faith. CONSERVATORS OF CIVILIZATION The Conservative Humanism of Irving Babbitt. 492 Woodrow Wilson and the Antagonist World. 472 Orestes Brownson and the Just Society. 461 John Randolph of Roanoke: The Planter-Statesman. 450 The Constitution and the Antagonist World. THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC The Framers: Not Philosophes but Gentlemen. 418 Teaching Humane Literature in High Schools. 398 The American Scholar and the American Intellectual. DECADENCE AND RENEWAL IN EDUCATION The Conservative Purpose of a Liberal Education. THE DRUG OF IDEOLOGY The Drug of Ideology. 319 The Architecture of Servitude and Boredom. PLACES AND PEOPLE Reflections of a Gothic Mind.
219 A Cautionary Note on the Ghostly Tale. THE MORAL IMAGINATION The Moral Imagination. PRINCIPLES OF ORDER Edmund Burke: A Revolution of Theoretic Dogma. 50 What Did Americans Inherit from the Ancients?. OUR SACRED PATRIMONY The Law and the Prophets. THE IDEA OF CONSERVATISM What Is Conservatism?. xi Russell Amos Kirk: A Composite Chronicle. Paul Elmer More “The Centenary of Sainte-Beuve” Shelburne Essays, Volume III (1905) There is nothing more wholesome than to dip into the strong and steady current of wise judgment. Ralph Waldo Emerson “The Man of Letters” Lectures and Biographical Sketches (1895) He is too good for the world he is in advance of his race his function is prophetic. Has drawn the white lot in life.The very disadvantages of his condition point at superiorities. I offer perpetual congratulation to the scholar he Isi books intercollegiate studies institute post office box 4431 wilmington, delaware 19807 The essential Russell Kirk : selected essays / edited by George A. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or broadcast. Kirk Trust editorial material copyright © 2007 George A. III Books and Articles About Russell Kirk: A Selective ListĬopyright © 2007 Annette Y.